What happens when you crave  Shrikand and you know it is a dish you cant have right away? I love shrikand and grew up walking down to Prashant hotel in Belgaum when I was about 12 and sitting there savoring my puris and Shrikand. At that time, it was new dish introduced to us. My parents were not huge fans of eating sweetened yogurt with their puris. But I loved it when we had it for the 1st time in a friend’s house. So when I pestered my mom to make some for us, she preferred giving me some money to buy it just for myself. As a kid, I had this weird habit- If I liked something  that I requested my mom to make, I insisted that everyone in the family eat it and say they love it as much as I do. So money it was to go down and eat it on my own. Yes, it was a safe town and we literally lived right next to the restaurant and everyone there knew us, so I had the privilege of  receiving extras coz mom would share with some of the waiters, who loved far away from home some of our home cooked meals.

Coming back to Shrikand, this is simply yogurt that is bundled up in a cheese cloth and sits overnight, so the next morning we get thick yogurt without all of the water. You then add a few things and voila you have Shrikand!

In my cheese and egg class at ARC, our instructor was talking about making our own fruit yogurt and not to buy the store bought ones.  She said they have a whole lot of ingredients that we don’t really need. I was intrigued and checked the ingredients for flavored yoplait, here is what was is in it

Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Low Fat Milk, Sugar, Strawberries, Modified Corn Starch, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Nonfat Milk, Kosher Gelatin, Citric Acid, Tricalcium Phosphate, Natural Flavor, Pectin, Colored with Carmine, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3.

Really, we don’t need sugar+high fructose corn syrup+gelatin+corn starch. Try adding all this to your yogurt, you wont eat even a spoon of it. So what should we buy you ask? We make our own yogurt at home when the weather gets warmer. But the rest of the year we love our Greek Gods Yogurt.  It is rich, creamy and tastes like yogurt. Our new favorite is the strawberry honey yogurt. It is not overly sweet and has just a mild strawberry flavor.

So this is how we made our shrikand on demand, in a jiffy.

Greek God plain yogurt – 2 cups ( use whole fat or non fat)

Honey – 3 T or more to taste

Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

Saffron – 1/8^th tsp, slightly crushed

Chopped unsalted pistachio – 1 T

• Whisk the yogurt and honey with a fork, until smooth and creamy
• Add cardamom powder and saffron and fold in the ingredients
• Garnish with pistachio and let it chill in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours until the flavors are well incorporated.

You can of course add freshly chopped strawberries when they are in season. Use plain Greek God Yogurt to make various flavored shrikands. You can even add fresh mangoes or even fresh lychees. On days you want to indulge in a dessert after dinner, this  is a recipe that will come in handy. It is simple, tasty and healthy!