Indian Dessert: Shahi Tukra

Today, I made my childhood favorite dessert, Shahi Tukra (Tukray for plural). It's an extremely rich and heavy dish, so make sure you eat it in small portions. It consists of fried pieces of bread dipped in water which has sugar, cardamom seeds, and saffron, and dipped in cream that has cardamom seeds. Of course, the cream part is optional. The flavors of saffron and cardamom seeds gently pat your taste buds, and the dish is fun to eat. It's soft on the outside, and crispy inside. Also, you can always impress your friends, family, or co-workers with such an exotic and delicious dish such as this one. 

(Balachander, 2010)

Let's get started, shall we?


Ingredients

• 1 liter milk (any kind)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• cardamom seeds
• saffron
• slivered almonds (optional)
• pistachios (optional)

Supplies

• 1 non-stick pan
• 1 small pot to boil water
• 1 medium or large pot to boil milk

Instructions

Milk

1. Pour very little oil in the medium/large, and turn the heat up to medium.
2. Open up 2 - 3 cardamom seeds (depending on how strong you want the flavor), and pour in the little black bits inside. Do not pour in the unpeeled seed as it may cause choking. It is not edible.
3. Let it simmer a bit.
4. Pour in the milk and let it boil.
5. Keep stirring the milk as it's boiling and check for consistency. The milk should become thick and almost creamy.

Sweet Water

1. Add 2 - 3 unpeeled cardamom seeds in the small pot (they're will not be included in the dish. They're just to provide flavor in the water).
2. Sprinkle just a pinch of saffron.
3. Add in the sugar.
4. Add in the water.
5. Boil and the water will turn into syrup. 
6. Do not be alarmed if the color appears yellow. It comes from the saffron and cardamom seeds.

Bread

1. Cut bread in to preferred sizes (this is done for eater-friendliness). 
2. Add oil to the pan along with 2 unpeeled cardamom seeds.
3. Fry the bread pieces until golden-brown (I like to make them extra brown sometimes for extra crispiness). 
4. Take out the bread pieces with anything that would let the oil slip back into the pan, and place the bread pieces on a paper towel (to soak in the remaining oil) in a plate or a dish.

      

Compile

1. Dip the bread pieces in the sugar water for at least 2 seconds (with the same utensil you used in step 4 in Bread).
2. Optional: You can also dip the bread pieces inside the milk the same way.
3. Place them in a dish, and pour generous amounts of the milk on top of it.
4. Garnish with almond slivers and pistachios (anything you prefer, really).

And voila! This dish is usually eaten with a spoon (to enjoy the soupy milk) and a fork (to enjoy the crispy bread). It tastes delicious both hot and cold, but it isn't that great when it's room-temperature. 

I hope this dish turns out successfully for you. Do comment for questions and suggestions. Again, this dish is a childhood favorite of mine, so I dearly hope that you will like it as well.


Sources:


Balachander (2010, November 8). Shahi Tukra. Retrieved from http://abikitchen.blogspot.com/2010/11/shahi-tukra.html