Kaju Draksh Shrikhand with a hint of vanilla

Kaju Draksh Shrikhand, why would I even share a recipe to the simplest Shrikhand  most of us make at home! Really, why?  Well, because I feel this is the best Shrikhand I have ever made,  believe me I make too much Shrikhand that to in various flavors, textures and colors!! It is one of my go to desserts,  something you will usually find in my refrigerator. But, the one I made recently turned out to be quite  different. It was creamy, it had multiple layers in flavors and texture. I will not walk you through the entire process of how we love Shrikhand and how it used to be made during the bygone times. Infact, one of my initial posts talks about the pleasures and pains of mixing up a perfect Shrikhand.

Shrikhand is a summer staple in Gujarat because summer is a time we increase our intake of yogurt. The king of mangoes we love to make aamras with, arrives in the markets only by the end of April but the temperatures start soaring  by March triggering appetite loss and the need to switch to small lite meals. The Dal-Bhaat are no longer devoured because the yearning for chilled and cooler foods and drinks with the meal is at its peak!! This is the time we usually serve Shrikhand or Matho (slightly liter version)  with roti, subzi and Kanda-Keri kachumber. And since I was in hot hot Ahmedabad last week and I had some excellent quality yogurt made with  farm fresh milk from an organic cattle-farm of my dear friend Purvi Vyas, I thought of using it to cook up some recipes.  When there is access to  excellent quality  thick and creamy yogurt why  complicate options!! Shrikhand it had to be! I would have loved to make mango shrikhand but since they weren’t around a simple flavor is all I opted for. The art to perfect Shrikhand involves getting the consistency of the chakka/hung curd  right. The chakka  has to be dry but not so much that it separates from the cloth (you have tied it in) completely. Once the chakka is done there is nothing much left to do. To get this nuances right I suggest you start a day before you plan to serve Shrikhand. Set the milk to get perfect plain (not sour) yogurt, drain it on sieve lined with mul-cotton/cheesecloth, tie it and allow it to sit  over a bowl in the refrigerator for 6-7 hours or overnight.

So why did this particular  Shrikhand taste different?? I added a dash of pure vanilla bean paste (my mum always added Vanilla to the shrikhad she made)   soaked the raisins for 15 minutes and toasted the cashews before chopping and adding them to the Shrikhand. The excellent quality yogurt and these little nuances made a huge  difference to the flavors of this simple yet sinful Kaju Draksh Shrikhand!!

Try it ❤