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Sweets in India have their own big role, from occasions to celebrations, and each is marked by sugar and milk delights. Milk is a main ingredient in the Indian household and consequently many of our savored dishes are milk-based. 

I remember going over to a friend’s house once as a child, where my friend’s mother engaged us little children by serving us shrikhand with hot, handmade chapattis, which are flat cakes made of wheat flour. It was the first time I can remember eating shrikhand, and I was completely overwhelmed, from the wonderfully melting in the mouth texture to a taste not too sweet, yet satisfying the taste buds.

Years later, it was Christmas time, and I was invited to dinner at the home of a Dutch family. In India, it’s a good custom to prepare something for the hosts, so I began thinking of preparing something interesting for this Dutch family. Being a novice at cooking elaborate meals, I asked my mother what I should prepare: she suggested making something sweet, like shrikhand, the one sweet dish I happened to love. 

She sent me her recipe for shrikhand, plus a few extra mother’s little secrets for preparing it just right. Following her recipe religiously, I was able to prepare the dish without too much sweat and effort. And best of all, the Dutch family liked as well when served during our memorable Christmas time dinner together.

Shrikhand is a well-known and highly-loved dessert in India. It is commonly served as part of a vegetarian food in Indian restaurants and also very popular as part of wedding feasts. Saffron (Kesar) and cardamom are the best friends of any kind of sweet or dessert. Traditionally, shrikhand is made from hung curd, which can be a painful task to prepare as it takes hours to extract water content from the yogurt. But this recipe uses sour cream instead of yoghurt, which gives better texture and flavor to the shrikhand, while allowing you to make a perfect dessert in a very short time.

For those who’d like to welcome friends over with a delicious serving of Shrikhand, one of India’s favorite deserts, just go to www.delta.tudelft.nl for the online version of this article and follow the simple step-by-step instructions. 

Shrikhand
Ingredients

-2 cups fresh sour cream
-1 cup sugar
-1/2 teaspoon saffron strands.
-1 teaspoon cardamom powder
-1/3 cup sliced pistachios/almonds mix to garnish
-2 teaspoon plain yoghurt (optional)
-1 teaspoon milk

Preparation method:

Step 1: Take the milk in a cup and put it in microwave for 45-60 seconds.

Step 2: Mix the saffron strands in the milk and rub with your fingers to extract the orange or yellow color and saffron flavor. The more you rub the more color you’ll get. Keep this aside.

Step 3: Now, mix the sour cream, yoghurt, cardamom powder and sugar in a large bowl. Slowly mix the saffron milk to this mixture and keep stirring to spread the color throughout the sour cream.

Step 4: Transfer the shrikhand to a serving bowl and keep to refrigerate.

Step 5: Garnish it with the dry-fruits before serving. 

There, a delicious and healthy Indian dessert, shrikhand, is ready to dazzle your family or friends. You can also add your favorite fruits like mango, apple, pineapple or even strawberry to turn it into fruit shrikhand, which is a great variant of this traditional delicacy.