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Shrikhand

Ready in 30 mins + waiting

Recipe by Graham 

Shrikhand is popular milk based dessert of western Indian state of Gujarat. This dish always ends a great Gujarati meal. A treat for the whole family.

Traditionally, to prepare Shrikhand, yogurt was tied in a cotton cloth and left under pressure or hung from a hook to drain. The strained yogurt and sugar were then mixed thoroughly and then cardamom, saffron, and any other flavours were added. In this recipe, we are using curds (sometimes referred to as cottage cheese) instead of yoghurt.

Preparation Time

30 Minutes + waiting

Ingredients for Shrikhand

If you are not familiar with any ingredients, please check our International Cooking Terms page.
If you want to know more about Indian ingredients, check our Indian Spices and our Indian Pulses, Rice and Seeds pages.

Currently displaying quantities in US Imperial Measurements

To serve 4:

1¼ pint milk
¼ teaspoon lemon juice
4 fl oz water
a few strands saffron
10½ oz caster sugar (superfine sugar)
½ teaspoon cardamom powder
5 - 6 pistachio nuts (for garnish)
5 - 6 almonds (for garnish)

How to Cook Shrikhand

  1. Keep 1 tablespoon of the milk to one side. Heat the remaining milk in a pan and bring it to a gentle boil over a medium heat. Remove from the heat, stir the lemon juice into 4 fl oz (120ml) of water and add to the milk then stir slowly and gently until white curd forms on the surface and separates from whey.
  2. Use a white muslin cloth to strain the milk. The solid remaining in the cloth (the curds) is called "chenna" (cottage cheese). Wash this cheese well under cold running water, then twist the cloth that was used for straining to extract as much water as possible.
  3. Hang the cloth with the curds in a cool place for a minimum of 3 hours (preferably overnight) until all the liquid (whey) has drained off.
  4. Put the tablespoon of milk that you reserved into a pan and warm it gently. Add in the saffron and stir until it dissolves, then remove from the heat. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the hung curds, sugar, saffron mixture and cardamom. Blend gently with a hand mixer. Leave this in the fridge to allow the sugar to dissolve. Break or partly crush the pistachios and almonds and use to garnish the Shrikhand.
GRAHAM'S HOT TIP:
Add a handful of fresh sliced strawberries instead of the saffron and cardamom powder, then you have created strawberry shrikand! (You may want to adjust the sugar according to the sweetness of the strawberries).