Scarlett WShrikhand with Exotic Fruits
February 13th 2008 10:23
Shrikhand with Exotic Fruits
About Shrikhand
Shrikhand is an Indian dessert made of strained yoghurt. It is one of the main desserts in Gujarati cuisine, and a common side dish in Maharashtrian cuisine. The yoghurt is tied and hung until all the water has drained off, the result being a thick and creamy yoghurt. Dried and fresh fruit such as mango are also added. Other ingredients include sugar, cardamom powder, and saffron, Shrikhand is popular in western India.
A popular variation is Amrakhand, which is Shrikhand mixed with mango pulp, and made homogeneous with mixer.
About Saffron
Saffron is a highly valued spice that comes from the stamens (male flower parts) of the autumn flowering crocus. To harvest saffron, the flowers are picked before they open naturally, and then opened them by hand to remove the stamens. These are then dried either in the sun or with the use of cool forced air drying before being packaged and sold. To get 1kg of dried saffron, means harvesting somewhere between 70,000 – 200,000, individual flowers.
About Cardamom
Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic fragrance.
The most common form of cardamom – green cardamom – is as a flvouring for coffee and tea, primarily in the Middle East.
In some Middle Eastern countries, coffee and cardamom are often ground together in a mihbaj, or wooden mortar to produce mixtures that are as much as 40% cardamom. In some cultures, the grinding is ritualized and accompanied by singing and dancing.
Black cardamom has a distinctly more astringent aroma, though not bitter, with a coolness similar to mint, though with a different aroma. It is a common ingredient in Indian cooking, and is often used in baking in Nordic countries, such as in the Finnish sweet-bread pulla. It is one of the most expensive spices by weight, and little is needed to impart the flavour. Cardamom is best stored in pod form, because once the seeds are exposed or ground, they quickly lose their flavour. However, high-quality ground cardamom is often more readily (and cheaply) available, and is an acceptable substitute. For recipes requiring whole cardamom pods, a generally accepted equivalent is 10 pods equals 1½ teaspoons of ground cardamom.
About Pomegranate
The pomegranate is native from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India and was cultivated and naturalized over the whole Mediterranean region since ancient times. It is widely cultivated throughout India and the drier parts of southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies and tropical Africa. The tree was introduced into California by Spanish settlers in 1769. In this country it is grown for its fruits mainly in the drier parts of California and Arizona. In the global functional food industry, pomegranate is included among a novel category of exotic plant sources called superfruits.
The fruits are ripe when they have developed a distinctive color and make a metallic sound when tapped. The fruits must be picked before over maturity when they tend to crack open, particularly when rained on. The pomegranate is equal to the apple in having a long storage life. It is best maintained at a temperature of 32° to 41° F. and can be kept for a period of 7 months within this temperature range and at 80 to 85% relative humidity without shrinking or spoiling. The fruits improve in storage, becoming juicier and more flavorful.
After opening the pomegranate by scoring it with a knife and breaking it open, the arils (seed casings) are separated from the skin (peel) and internal white supporting structures (pith and carpellary membrane). Separating the red arils can be simplified by performing this task in a bowl of water, whereby the arils will sink and the white structures will float to the top. The entire seed is consumed raw, though the fleshy outer portion of the seed is the part that is desired. The taste differs depending on the variety of pomegranate and its state of ripeness. It can be very sweet or it can be very sour or tangy, but most fruits lie somewhere in between, which is the characteristic taste, laced with notes of its tannin.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 6
900 gm / 2 lb natural set yoghurt
10 – 12 strands saffron, pounded
2 tablespoons skimmed milk
50 gm / 1¾ oz caster sugar, or to taste
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
250 gm / 9oz natural dates
250 gm / 9oz fresh lychees, or 400 gm / 14 oz canned lychees, drained
1 small papaya
1 pomegranate
1. Pour the yoghurt onto a fine muslin cloth, then tie the corners in a knot. Suspend the muslin over the sink for 4 hours, or overnight, until all the water content has drained through. alternatively, put the muslin bag into a sieve, place it over a bowl and chill until the yoghurt is well drained.
2. When the yoghurt has drained, warm the milk a little, remove it from the heat and infuse the saffron in it for 10 minutes.
3. Untie the muslin cloth and empty the strained yoghurt into a large bowl.
4. Stir in the sugar and cardamom and whisk until the mixture is smooth.
5. Stir in the saffron milk until it is well blended, then cover the shrikhand and chill for 1 hour before serving.
6. Meanwhile, stone and chop the dates.
7. Peel the lychees. Working over a bowl to collect the juice, make two or three slits in the flesh of each and remove the stones. If using canned lychees, halve or quarter each one.
8. Cut the papaya into quarters, scrape out the seeds and the membrane with a teaspoon, then peel each quarter and cut the flesh into bite-size pieces.
9. Cut the pomegranate in half and remove the skin and the white membrane attached to the seeds. Reserve all the seeds.
10. In individual dishes, arrange alternate layers of shrikhand and fruits and seeds (reserving a few pomegranate seeds for a garnish), along with any fresh lychee juice.
11. Garnish with the reserved seeds and serve.
**From “Low Fat No Fat Cookbook”, “Crops for Southland” and “Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia” **
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