I had invited one of our friends for Diwali dinner yesterday. I wanted to make an elaborate dinner for the festival. He and his friend brought a sweet vermicelli payasa with them. Everything was simple but I enjoyed cooking as well as eating it. Here is my entire Diwali spread, since this is a festival spread, I made everything without onion and garlic, ie, a ‘satvik’ food.
In the bowls – Varn , vermicelli paays , shrikhand In the plate – Puris , capsicum & cauliflower bajjis , muga dali usli , tendli buthi , batate talasani , rice.
Now coming to Shrikhand ..
Shrikhand is a very popular sweet made of hung yogurt and sugar. I have seen this very frequently in Marathi menus. I tasted this for the first time when I was about 14 years old, we were in Mumbai visiting one of our relatives and I had to eat a small bowl of this. I felt it was a torture for me. After that I tried this in different places for 3-4 times and I never liked it. So I decided never to try this again.
About 4-5 months ago, Aruna sent me this recipe. But due to my previous failed attempts, I kept the recipe as it is without trying it. But then, while talking to my cousin day before yesterday, he said his wife had made Shrikhand and somehow I felt like giving this a try. Then hubby said he loves this dish. So I decided to give it a try. I am very happy that I tried. It was very good, my hubby and I instantly loved it this time. I followed Aruna’s recipe exactly. I served it with puris since that seems to be a super hit combo.
Aruna’s personal touch for this recipe is a little amount of sour cream along with yogurt. She said, “Do not forget to use sour cream, it gives the taste. I have tried both with and without using sour cream, but tastes better with it”. But she said if sour cream is not available, you can ignore it. Thanks a lot dear for sending me this. I also loved the almond taste in this. I think I am going to make this often now. Next time I am going to make Amrakhand – Shrikhand with mango.
I am sending this to Vee’s Diwali special JFI .
Ingredients: 4 cups ready made yogurt or yogurt made from 1.5ltrs of milk 1/2 cup sour cream (optional) 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup coarsely powdered almonds 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder 7-8 strands of saffron soaked in about 1 tbl spn warm water
Method: Take a clean muslin cloth and take the yogurt in it. Tie a knot and hang it so that all the water falls away from the yogurt. Leave it like this for overnight or for about 12hrs. The remaining dry yogurt is called hung yogurt. In a bowl mix hung yogurt, sour cream, sugar. Mix well. Add the saffron, cardamom to get a nice saffron color. Now add almonds. Serve with puris .
Serves : 6-7 Preparation time : 10mins (excluding the time to prepare hung yogurt)
PS: – You can add pistachios for this along with almonds. As Aruna had mentioned I had coarsely powdered the almonds, but they can be roughly chopped and added. – In Mumbai charolis are also added to Shrikhand . – Mix very well after adding saffron to get a good color. You can also add food color to get a nice yellow color for Shrikhand . I added saffron but didn’t mix it well and didn’t add food color because I like the light color. – Do not add all sugar at a time. It makes the shrikhand quite sweet, add 1 cup at a time and if required then add more.
Moong dal(muga dali) usli is very dear to most of the Konkanis. Some people eat it as a breakfast and some as a side dish. For me, it is mostly known as a prasad of Ramnavami festival . However you eat it, this is a very tasty and filling dish with or without any combination. I love to cook this because it is very easy and very nutritious. Make it a bit spicy and it goes well with chapathis too(This is just my way of eating it, others might not like this combination).
Ingredients: 1/2 cup moong dal 1 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut 3-4 green chilies 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds A pinch asafoetida 1/2 tea spn sugar 4-5 curry leaves Oil Salt
Method: Heat oil and add mustard seeds. Add curry leaves, green chilies, asafoetida and fry for little time. Now add moong dal , fry for about 5mins and about 2 cups water, salt. Close the lid and cook till dal is cooked but not mushy. Add sugar and mix well. Garnish with coconut.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 15mins
