Thursday

Jihva for Strawberries - Shrikhand

Inspiration didn't come as easily the second time around! I thought long and hard but couldn't narrow down on a strawberry dish that excited me enough. Cupcake, shortcake, mousse..... isn't there an Indian dessert with strawberries? Not really. It is an exotic fruit for us after all. In Bombay strawberries come to the market from Mahableshwar which is for that reason called the 'strawberry capital of Maharashtra'.

Go to the place at the right time and you can eat fresh strawberries straight off the farms; in fact you can satiate all your strawberry cravings if you so wish, because everyone in town seems to be selling strawberry milkshakes, fudge or jams.

strawb

Coming back to Jihva, I realized I didn't need to look far for ideas. Inspiration was right around the corner. Literally. For years folks in my parts of the city were loyal only to the original, saffron shrikhand; it took a while even for the mango version to gain access to the club (only because I suspect we knew mango went well with everything).

But then a new store opened in our neighbourhood, one so keen on "experimenting" that it introduced such mind boggling flavors as butter scotch, fig, pineapple and strawberry. At first we frowned, then we tried a bit out of curiosity, then we tried some more just to be sure, then well, then we became converts! Last time I checked, if you wanted strawberry shrikhand you had to place an order the day before!

shrikhand1

STRAWBERRY SHRIKHAND
8-10 medium sized strawberries
1 32 oz. tub of plain Greek yogurt/ about 3-4 cups
3/4 cup sugar
2-3 tbsp honey
6-8 cardamoms
finely sliced pistachios
slivered almonds/ charoli

Spoon yogurt into a clean cheese cloth, tie into a knot and suspend the 'pouch' from your kitchen faucet for 4-5 hours OR place in a colander with a bowl underneath and keep in the refrigerator. Remove the drained, thick yogurt into a mixing bowl.

Slice the stems off the berries, halve them and put in a blender. Pulse for a few minutes. Strain the pulp to get a smooth syrup and add to yogurt. Stir in sugar and honey and whisk the mixture until it dissolves. A hand blender works well here.

Peel the cardamoms and crush to a fine powder in a mortar and pestle. Add to yogurt and whisk again. Cover and chill shrikhand until it is ready to serve. Sprinkle with pistachios and almonds before serving.

* I found using a combination of sugar and honey tastes better but you can use either as the sole sweetener. Remember to adjust the amount to your taste and the sweetness of the berries.
* For mango shrikhand (amrakhand) use mango pulp

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45 Comments:

Blogger Menu Today said...

Hi,
Mouth watering picture. I will try it one day. Thanx for sharing.

8:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I really liked the way u served it ashwini....the wafer looks so inviting

9:11 PM  
Blogger Nabeela said...

yumy yum yum....BEAUUUUUUUUTIFUL!!!!

9:26 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Hey MT - thanks and let me know when you do
Santhi - thanks. I love the waffle cones and bowls we get here..thought it would make a nice crunchy companion to the creamy shrikhand :-)
Thanks Nabeela - you are kind

10:02 PM  
Blogger Sumitha said...

Hey Ashwini,your right,it would be nice to take a bite of it to find it crunchy in the beginnning and later the creamy shrikand melts in your mouth Hmmm yummy yummy!

3:19 AM  
Blogger Vaishali said...

Ashwini,
That's such a temping picture of the Strawberrykhand! Using honey is an interesting idea. I make an Indian-ish dessert with strawberries too. Will write about it some time. In the meanwhile, let me go back to the original post and feast my eyes on that yummy thingie again.

5:14 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, what a nice treat !.... strawberries shrikand does sound delicious and flavourful to the hilt...wanna try this asap.:)

7:41 AM  
Blogger Luv2cook said...

Ashwini:

WOW. Great looking picture and the shrikhand sounds amazing. Out of curiousity, is that an waffle bowl you used for display?

8:39 AM  
Blogger Luv2cook said...

Oops...read before you comment...sorry just read the earlier comments!

8:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Absolutely beautiful!!
Lovely presentation,Ashwini. Its sad I dont get fresh strawberries here in Vizag..:(

8:50 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

AWESOME !!!

The shrikand looks very creamy and and with all the nuts and strawberries it just a mouthful of joy :)

How long can we store them in fridge? A week ?

9:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks yummy ashwini! lovely pictures as usual.

cheers!

9:14 AM  
Blogger lost in thoughts said...

How utterly lovely & delicious ! Great job, Ashwini.

9:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thats a great recipe Ashwini.
Even after banging my head, I couldn't come up with some entry for the JFI event :(. Your entry rocks :).

10:00 AM  
Blogger Krithika said...

Very innovative recipe and excellent pics.

10:31 AM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

L2C, Saffron, Kritika, Sonali, Shilpa - Thanks all of you.
Vaishali - strawkhand! I like that name. Pls post your recipe too
Lera - let me know if you try it
Priya - you really want to store it? :-) I would say about 5 days and covered well.
Sailu - thats unfortunate. I wish I could send some over to you. This is the best season here.

10:50 AM  
Blogger archana said...

Nice recipe, excellent presentaiton, you are a charming story teller Ashwini ( a photographer too !!)
Archana

12:00 PM  
Blogger Vineela said...

Hi AShwini,
Great photo and that too serving in waffel cone .
I love the arrangement and it shows the fine color of strawberry and this is the perfect entry to JFI.
Can i know which brand of cone you used and where we can get this.
Thanks for sharing.
Vineela

12:24 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Thanks Neelu. Thats a great idea. I used low fat yogurt but sour cream will definitely reduce the hassle. Does it still taste the same?
Vineela - thanks. I bought the waffle bowl at Cold stone creamery. They serve ice creams either in waffle cones or bowls.

12:42 PM  
Blogger KA said...

Great pictures Ashwini!!
Love the presentation.. great recipe too.

12:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yo-plait must have stolen the idea of fruit yogurt from us.:)

Loved reading your intro and enjoyed looking at the cool, healthy and colorful treat. Gorgeous entry!

2:10 PM  
Blogger RP said...

That looks like something I want to jump into. Looks soooooooo delicious.

3:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Look at that picture!Marvelous! Wow!

6:00 PM  
Blogger reshma said...

shrikhand is an 'only heard of never tasted dish' where I come from.I had to come to Amrika to taste my first shrikhand. have to tell you this, your photos are beginning to get better post after post. Good Job!

6:07 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Krishna, Indira, RP, LG - thanks
Neelu - will give it a try sometime
Reshma - thanks buddy! i dont know whats worse - you not tasting shrikhand for so long or you tasting it here for the first time :-)

7:00 PM  
Blogger indianadoc said...

Truly gorgeous...definitely shall try..

5:18 AM  
Blogger indosungod said...

I had thought Shrikhand was an exotic dish, seeing how simple and yummy it looks I might get bold to even try it. The photos are great.

7:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the picture looks so inviting....want to eat that shreekhand off the screen!! tw where did you get those yummy wafer bowls from?

8:36 AM  
Blogger Rajesh &Shankari said...

love shrikand - any flavor works for me although I am partial to the original one. This is anovel idea

2:54 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Indiandoc, Indosungod (man you guys are creative with your names) - its really simple to make. let me know if you give this a try
Shankari - yep. I can never switch my loyalties from the original flavor either :-)
Supriya - I got the waffle bowl from coldstone creamery.

3:24 PM  
Blogger Tina Jennifer D'Silva said...

Hey Ashwini... the pic looks so yummy... Nice photoraphy...

6:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That looks so inviting! Great idea to use waffle cones!

12:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks so delicious!!

3:40 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi
Have heard of Mango shrikand. But your innovation of strawberry shrikand is out of the world. Loved your photo of the strawberry shrikand decorated with rich nuts. Thx for sharing such nice recipe here.
Chk here for more unique dessert ideas:
http://www.indusladies.com/forums/ask-chitvish/575-elegant-desserts-for-perfect-indulgence.html

3:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Ashwini,
Your blog is one of the best out here! Great recipes, great words and great pictures!

I tried the "Strawkhand" today. I'll stick with the traditional or the Amrakhand though! :) I guess some loyalties are hard to break.

10:54 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Hey anon, thanks! Looks like its not going to be easy to shake your faith ;-)

12:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this looks delicious and beautiful! I am going to post a plain, saffron shrikhand recipe on my blog today...

6:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello, Ashwini!!

Not sure you are aware of it or not but I saw your photo of the strawberry shrikhand here

12:45 AM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Anon, thanks for letting me know. This I guess is one of the hazards of blogging :(

11:22 AM  
Blogger Lisa said...

Thanks for sharing this recipe, Ashwini. I made the shrikand today (started it last night) for a special luncheon, and people really liked it. I had not had shrikand before that I can remember. I loved the pink color! I didn't post about it, but now I wish I had gotten some photos because it was so pretty. Next time: mango!

1:36 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Lisa, I am glad you liked shrikhand. Let me know how mango turns out (my bet is you will like it even better than the strawberry version :))

4:32 PM  
Blogger TBC said...

Hey Ashwini,
Just discovered this shrikhand post of yours thanks to Red Chillies. It looks so darn good! I love the way you've served it too. I too made a shrikhand- one with raspberries- a few weeks back.:)

2:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Ashwini,
My love for shrikhand has started since thelast few months, but now am a real fan of it. Was searching for the recipe when I found urs. Seems to be yummy, i'll try it out. What do u mean by Greek yogurt?

12:43 AM  
Blogger bint alshamsa said...

Oh, how I wish I wasn't allergic to strawberries!

12:46 PM  
Blogger Aarti said...

hey really good! i tried it my husband just loved it...thx a lot

11:34 PM  

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