Ugadi/Gudi Padva Special

Wish you all a very Happy Ugadi/Gudi Padva!

Ugadi/Gudipadva denotes the New year day according to the Hindu calendar. One of the major memories of this festival being celebrated at home is the 'Prasad' made on this day. It mainly consists of 'Neem flowers' & 'Jaggery'. Me & My brother D, used to devise new means every year to escape having to eat that. This prasad actually denotes the 'sweet' & 'bitter' things in life in the coming new year.

The festive meal usually consists of Shrikhand - Puri. Shrikhand is a sweet made from Curd and it can be served as a dessert as well as one of the main dishes along with Puri. We rarely get good Shrikhand here in London. So I prefer to make it at home. Although the taste is not quite the same as what you get in shops in India, I at least have the satisfaction of having made it myself at home :)

I so wanted to participate in the Monthly Mingle that I made a slight change in the recipe to accommodate Strawberries in it :) and now it is called Berrykhand, just like there is Amrakhand. For those of you who don't know, Amrakhand is a Mango flavoured Shrikhand and one of my favourite desserts.

But for now here is Berrykhand!

Makes about 4-5 bowls.
Ingredients
1 kg Curd
1/2 cup Sugar
10-12 Strawberries
1-2 pinches Nutmeg powder
Almonds (As many as you like)

Method:
Tie the curd in a muslin cloth. Place it on a height & put some heavy object on the cloth such that the curd is hanging down loose. Place a container beneath this to catch the water. This has to be kept for approx 2-3 hours till the curd looses all the water. Sorry I completely forgot to take snaps of this stage.

Meanwhile blend the strawberries to get a puree. Pass this through a sieve to get rid of the seeds.

The curd obtained after the first step is called the Chakka (the 'ch' pronounced as in 'church') and looks something like this...


Add the sugar to this chakka & stir till all the sugar is dissolved. Now add the Strawberry puree, nutmeg powder and mix again. You may have to adjust the sugar a bit if the strawberries are a little sour in taste. I had to add 2-3 spoons more of sugar. Add the chopped almonds and refrigerate. You can also use other nuts, I think Pistachio would be very nice but I had run out of them yesterday. Serve chilled.

This Berrykhand tasted a lot like Strawberry flavoured Yogurt :) but we liked it.


This is my entry for the Monthly Mingle - Spring Fruit Sensation being hosted by Abby of Eat the Right Stuff. I am also sending this off to Simple Indian Food for the 'Fun n Sun' Event.