5-minute Indian Dessert! - Shrikhand
Intro: 5-minute Indian Dessert! - Shrikhand
It's going to take longer to tell the story of this dessert than it is to prepare it! (or eat it!) Making Shrikhand the proper way takes hours, but do it my way and it'll be ready in less than 5 minutes!
Here's what you'll need:
- Electric Mixer/Bowl
- Packet of MTR Badam Feast (100g) $2.99
- Container of whipped cream cheese (8oz) $1.87
But first, the backstory...
I first enjoyed Shrikhand in London over a dozen years ago, in one of those great Indian Bhel Poori restaurants on Drummond Street behind Euston Station. (I'm not sure which one; it might have been the Diwana?)
I then emigrated to the USA and any time I was in an Indian restaurant I asked for Shrikhand, but for all the years I've been here I never found it anywhere. So I decided to make my own... I followed many Indian recipes but never got the flavor or the texture right. Recipes called for yoghurt, and I tried plain, I tried Greek, I made my own - but it was never right. And I tried flavoring with cardamon but never got the flavor right either.
Then years later, an Indian store opened in our town, and among the things I tried there was a packet of flavoring called "MTR Badam Feast", intended for milk drinks and desserts. Well blow me over - it was the exact flavor I remembered for Shrikhand. All I needed to do now was work on the texture, which to my recollection had been far less like yoghurt and more like butter, or ... maybe ... cream cheese? Well, why not? ... I tried it, with the Badam Feast, and could not believe that I had stumbled on the perfect recipe at last. Given it was some years since I had it, this was exactly the treat I remembered!
(By coincidence, I had to return to London later that year, and I stopped off at Drummond St to check my recollection. Yes, it was spot on! This quick & easy substitute really is a good copy of the style of Shrikhand they serve in London...)
So... how to make it? Could not be simpler. Read on...
STEP 1: Empty the Cream Cheese Into the Mixing Bowl
STEP 2: Add Half a Packet of MTR Badam Feast
STEP 3: Mix
STEP 4: Put Back Into Cheese Container and Wait
STEP 5: Serve & Eat!
If you are a restauranteur, you could sell this for about $3 per serving, at a cost to you of about 50 cents, almost no effort, and ingredients you can keep on hand for some time without spoiling!
6 Comments
ThisIsMyNameOK 8 years ago
I also was thinking, since the whipped cream cheese gave you the flavour you were looking for, perhaps paneer would work better than yoghurt, if you want to make your own.
gtoal 8 years ago
If you came here looking for something to do with a packet of Badam Feast, try my recipe for Badam Halwa: https://www.instructables.com/id/5-minute-Badam-Halwa/
imakethings 13 years ago
meerar 13 years ago
i think shrikhand is a tremendous dish but i have found that people from other indian states dont like the taste. it is not something everyone likes instantly.
gtoal 13 years ago
I did actually make it from Greek yoghurt in one earlier attempt and it was OK but it wasn't remotely similar to the dessert I was trying to recreate. I also did it the hard way once, making it from scratch, squeezing it out through a muslin cloth bag etc!
The only difference between this hacker recipe and what I remember from Drummond St (where this was made in several different restaurants, but all tasting very similar) is that Badam Feast has almonds and other solid matter in it, whereas the restaurant version was completely smooth like butter. You could strain the Badam Feast first if you wanted an exact duplicate, but I happen to like it just the way it comes.
Now if someone could post a recipe on how to make a Badam Feast lookalike, that would be cool too!
Talking of Amrakhand - I did once order AMUL brand Shrikhand and Amrakhand by mail - but although it was great, it was more like an ice cream or kulfi and had to be shipped frozen. Still wasn't what I was looking for.
meerar 13 years ago
you need to pass the greek yogurt through muslin to collect the concentrated cream. otherwise it tends to be a bit watery. good luck