Tuesday, May 22, 2007

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."

7 comments:

Richa said...

hey this looks fantastic! i've tasted it at my friends place but never tried it for the fear of frying & too much sugar. ur version has jaggery, love it and also tava frying the bread sounds good!
and happy anniv to you!

Meena Raj said...

Thanks for the wishes Richa. Do try it when you can. This one tastes amazing. Almost all the recipes that I looked into suggested deep frying.. but tava frying turned out to be good too.

TNL said...

That looks lovely....I have yet to try this though. The recipe sounds so easy too. thanks for your version and congrats on your anniversary!

-trupti

Meena Raj said...

Thanks Trupti.. I am looking forward to participating in your WBB event this month. Waiting to "Spice things Up" :)

All Information is Hear said...

hi I would like you to suggest attach Sitemeter with your blog.

http://recipes-of-recipes.blogspot.com/

Shubha Ravikoti said...

meena found this while searching for shahi tukra..... http://indiandesserts.blogspot.com/2008/10/shahi-tukra.html

being a co blogger thought will let u know.

i guess the pictures r urs. dunno about the matter.

vibrantindiatours said...

Fantastic and very interesting tasty..Loving it.
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