Shrikhand is a popular Indian dessert made from fermented yogurt, fruit, and sugar. It is served as breakfast in Northern India and as a dessert in South India. It is also a traditional dessert for Janamashtami and is part of Gujarathi Thali. Variations include amrakhand, matho, and fruitkhand. To prepare, yogurt is strained, mixed with sugar and cardamom powder, and refrigerated. It is served cold with nuts and dried fruit.
Shrikhand is an extremely popular Indian dessert where plain yogurt is transformed into a melt-in-your-mouth delicacy. Essentially a combination of yogurt with fruit and sugar, this dish tastes very sweet. In Northern India, it is commonly served for breakfast along with hot poors, a type of fried bread. In South India, this dish is served as a dessert after the meal. Made from fermented yogurt, shrikand has a creamy, semi-soft texture and is slightly yellowish in color.
This dessert is also specially made for Janamashtami, a festival celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna, in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. It is also served as part of Gujarathi Thali which is a full meal containing small portions of assorted curries and vegetables. While its exact origins are unknown, it is thought to have arisen when traveling herdsmen tightly wrapped the curds in cloth overnight on long journeys.
This made the yogurt easier to transport, but didn’t help change the taste. Some believe that the practice of adding nuts and sugar began with an attempt to make yogurt more palatable. Some people colorfully and spiritually compare this dessert to Indian people in general. Like shrikhand, which is made by isolating the best parts of yogurt and leaving everything else behind, Indians are thought to have a truly hospitable core once everything else is taken away.
One of the ancient traditional desserts of India, shirkhand has become known in western part of India and is now widely spread across the country. There are many local variations in different states. For example, amrakhand is shrikhand containing mango pulp and is found in some parts of Maharashtra.
Matho is another variation of shrikhand which is quite popular in Gujarat. There are many funky varieties of shrikand. A well-known version called fruitkhand contains pieces of many different fruits such as pineapple, apple and sapodilla. Strawberry shrikand is another popular variation. It’s a dessert that lends itself to a lot of experimentation because it’s so easy to make.
To prepare this sweet dish, fresh yogurt is made with milk. The yogurt is wrapped in a thin muslin cloth and left for a few hours or overnight to let the liquids drain. The thick, taut yogurt that is left behind is called chakka, which is whipped together with powdered sugar and some cardamom powder. Saffron dissolved in some warm milk is added to the mixture. The creamy concentrate is then refrigerated for a few hours.
It is served cold, garnished with thin flakes of almonds, pistachios and pieces of dried fruit. More often than not, it’s served at the end of meals as a balancing point for the hot and spicy curries that come first. For some, eating paupers with cold shrikhand is similar to the Western tradition of consuming hot pancakes and ice cream. The dessert is a staple in many North Indian wedding feasts and can be easily prepared at home.
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