Indori Shahi Shikanji

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It is the last day of the month and I am doing the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge this month too! It’s been long since I have done it back to back, and slowly trying to get back to trying and cooking new recipes as much as I can. This month, our selected state was Madhya Pradesh and I was assigned Sujata as my partner. Sujata’s blog is a treasure of traditional Bengali recipes and she cooks to keep her beautiful family happy. It was really nice to be on board with her.

We had a brief discussion on the ingredients for this challenge. She gave me two simple ingredients of cardamom and saffron. My mind was literally dancing, since I had done a little search of the cuisine of Madhya Pradesh and my mind only wanted to make the Shahi Shikanji.

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Shikanji is usually the name used for salted lime water in most of the parts of India, but this one is totally different. It doesn’t even have the use of lime, and moreover is so “Shahi” aka royal, in its usage of thickened milk, yogurt and spices. It is a thick concoction, cooked and chilled to perfection and had with total relaxation. You can read about this totally delicious drink here.

Even though I can’t drink it, since I am off sugar for sometime, I really wanted to make it. I did make it and it was totally devoured by the men in the house. HD wasn’t feeling well the day I made it, so he had just half a glass, and the remaining was polished off by B. In fact, he started off saying, “What is this, lassi?” and then came back asking for more. He said, “This taste different!” So don’t think it is lassi, it is more than that for sure! 🙂 Off to the recipe…

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Meanwhile do check out Sujata’s post with the secret ingredients I gave her, here…

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5 from 7 votes

Indori Shahi Shikanji

Course Drinks

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• 500 ml double cream milk
• A fat pinch of saffron crushed
• 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
• 3 tbsp sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 250 gm yogurt
• Crushed pistachios for garnish

Instructions

• Keep the yogurt in a muslin cloth over a seive into a bowl. Keep covered in the fridge to drain till use.
• Heat milk in a thick bottomed saucepan. Once boiled, keep it on simmer and allow it to cook till it reduces to half. Scrape the sides to push back the cream in.
• Half way, crush in the saffron and cardamom.
• Once the milk is half and looks thick, add the sugar and salt and cook for a couple of minutes.
• Switch off, allow it to come to room temperature.
• Keep chilled in the refrigerator till cold.
• Bring out the hung curd and the milk. Drop the curd in and give it a good whisk to make the mixture creamy.
• Pour into two glasses, top with saffron and crushed pistachios.
• Serve immediately.

Notes

I have used double cream milk to give it a thicker texture, you can use full fat milk and boil it till half and thick