Shahi Tukra & Finding Harmony

Today is a special day for us.. its our marriage anniversary. Truly cannot believe how quickly time flies when you are with someone and still can be YOU. Five years have just fled past us before we could realize. Its amazing. So, today being a memorable day and all... we had to make some sweet. Every year I start with thinking of making something different and somehow after the whole brainstorming, the same kheer appears on the dining table. I very badly needed to change this tradition before my husband brings it up. Also, I wanted it to be thoughtful. The answer was "Shahi Tukra" - The Indian Bread Pudding. This dessert was typically unknown to me until I tasted it recently at an Indian restaurant. My husband loved it.. and if he loves something, then it got to be a real winner. Deciding to make it, I ran through a couple of websites that carried the recipe. They all followed different proportions and different ingredients to make them unique, making it hard for me to choose. So, I took it upon myself to try my own combination of the ingredients. This is the recipe I came up with. This is sure to be one heck of a treat for any special occassion.

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 litre
Bread slices - 4-6
Condensed Milk - 2-3 tbsps
Heavy cream - 1/4th of a cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 4 tbsps
Cardamon powder - 2 tsps
Saffron - 1 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
Raisins - to garnish
Almonds - to garnish
Cashews - to garnish

Ingredients: bread, almonds, cashews and raisins

Method:

• Combine milk, condensed milk, sugar and jaggery. Bring it to boil and reduce heat to medium.
• Keep simmering until the milk gets thickened. This might take close to 30 minutes.
• In the mean time, tava roast the bread slices with ghee on both sides. Take care not to burn.
• Reserve a table spoon of ghee and use the rest to fry the almonds, raisins and cashews.
• Add cardomon to the milk mixture and let it cool.
• Layer the bread at the bottom of a flat pan. Pour some milk to immerse it completely.
• Repeat the process until all the bread and milk are used up.
• Garnish with the roasted almonds mixture.
• Cool in refrigerator for atleast 30 minutes before serving.

Bread Pudding ready to be cooled

Trivia Facts:

The origin of Shahi Tukra is believed to be Pakistani. It literally means Royal Piece and sure tastes like one too. A very basic bread pudding seasoned with cardamom and dry fruits of ones own choice. Foodtimeline.org explains Shahi Tukra as "An Indian dessert in the Moghul style, Shahi tukra, is made with bread fried in ghee, dipped in a syrup flavoured with saffron and rosewater, and covered with a creamy sauce in which decorative slices of almond are embedded."

• Extracts about Bread Pudding recipes through time from Foodtimeline.org

"Food historians generally attribute the origin of basic bread pudding to frugal cooks who did not want to waste stale bread. Since very early times it was common practice to use stale/hard bread in many different ways...including edible serving containers (Medieval sops, foccacia), stuffings (forcemeat), special dishes (French toast) and thickeners (puddings). In the 19th century recipes for bread pudding were often included in cookbooks under the heading "Invalid cookery."

• Extract of a sample recipe for Bread Pudding from Foodtimeline.org when bread was considered a poor man's food

[1824]
"Bread pudding
Grate the crumb of a stale loaf, and pour it in a pint of boiling milk, let it stand an hour, then beat it to a pulp; add six eggs, well beaten, half a pound of butter, the same of powdered sugar, half a nutmeg, a glass of brandy, and some grated lemon-peel; put a paste in the dish and bake it."
---The Virginia Houswife, Mary Randolph, facsimile 1824 edition with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 150)"