Shrikhand Recipe (Flavored Yogurt Dessert)

Shrikhand is cooling, refreshing, and perfect for someone who loves sweetened yogurt but with a gourmet makeover. This dreamy, creamy yogurt dessert always gives me the “summer has arrived” vibe. If you’re looking for an easy and scrumptious recipe that uses minimal ingredients and comes together in less than 15 minutes, you ought to make this delicious shrikhand at home.

• 3 cups curd / yogurt or 1½ cups greek yogurt

• 1 pinch saffron strands / kesar

• ¼ to ½ tsp green cardamom powder (3 to 4 cardamom pods)

• ¼ cup sugar – powdered (use as needed)

• 2 tbsps almonds , chopped

• 1 tbsps pista , chopped

1. Place a colander or strainer over a large tall bowl to collect the whey. Spread a clean muslin or cheese cloth over the strainer.
2. Add curd to the cloth. Bring all the edges together. Squeeze out the excess whey from the curd.
3. Wrap the curd in the cloth and tie it with one of the edges to make a knot.
4. Method 1: Place the bundle of yogurt over the strainer/ colander with the tall bowl beneath. Place an heavy object over the yogurt so all of the whey drains to the bowl beneath. Ensure the colander does not touch the drained whey in the bowl.
5. Method 2: Place the bundle of curd in between a thick large absorbent towel or cloth. Transfer this to a plate and place a heavy object over the curd. I use my cast iron pan. 
6. Transfer this to the refrigerator. For the first method you have to leave it in the fridge 15 to 18 hours. For the second method, leave it for 1 hour.

How to make shrikhand

1. Drained super thick hung curd or chakka will be ready after the whey has been drained completely.
   Soak saffron in 1 tbsp hot water or hot milk.
2. Powder the sugar and set aside. If you do not have cardamom powder, add the cardamom pods to the grinder along with sugar and grind to a fine powder.
3. Remove strained yogurt/ chakka from the cloth and transfer to a mixing bowl. Most of the whey would have been drained. Save this for later use, you can use it to make roti dough, bread dough or pancake batter.
4. Add saffron infused milk, powdered sugar and cardamom powder.
5. Whisk it well with a metal whisk until really smooth. If you are making in smaller quantities, then a tablespoon works too. If you are making this in large quantity then you can use a electric beater/ whisk.
6. Serve shrikhand with puri or chill and enjoy as a dessert.
7. Garnish shrikhand with chopped nuts.

• firstly, adding curd makes paratha super soft. however, you can also use buttermilk.
• also, folding the paratha and rolling gives nice softness to the paratha.
• additionally, adjust the spices to your choice making it spicy or not.
• finally, dahi paratha recipe tastes great when served hot with butter.

Original recipe link here.