Monica Bhide I am super excited to be on NPR’s ALL THINGS CONSIDERED today with guest host Guy Raz discussing saffron. I spent some time with him in the kitchen cooking up a saffron carrot soup and this lovely saffron yogurt dessert featured here. I hope you will all tune in. Would love to hear your comments.
Here is the text for the show —Click here for the text and audio ( coming soon)
, going to post the audio when it goes on.
Indian yogurt pudding with saffron
Adapted from Modern Spice by Monica Bhide (Simon & Schuster, 2009)
Ingredients
1quart plain yogurt
¼ -1/2 cup granulated sugar (or to taste) or honey
2 tablespoons ricotta
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, steeped in 2 tablespoons warm milk/cream
Garnish: Saffron Threads
- To prepare yogurt cheese, place a colander over a medium bowl. Line the colander with several layers of cheesecloth. Place yogurt in cheesecloth. Refrigerate at least 8 hours, until whey has drained out (overnight works best).
- Spoon yogurt cheese into a clean bowl. (You can discard the whey.) Add granulated sugar and ricotta. Mix well with a spatula or hand-held blender. Adjust sugar to taste, adding up to 1 tablespoon more.
- Blend the saffron and milk into the yogurt mixture.
- Chill at least an hour.
- To serve, spoon the yogurt cheese mixture into serving cups and garnish with saffron.. Yield: 4 servings (serving size ½ cup per person)
Variation – you can also top with plain, unsalted sliced pistachios. You can also garnish with pomegranate arils, strawberries, kiwi slices and more.
Normally a lurker here, but I heard the story and really enjoyed it!
I really love saffron for the touch of luxury it gives. My favorite things to use saffron in are warm kesar milk (I’ve had it both to help me sleep, and on my wedding night in India…hmmm, conflicting purposes? ;-)) and rice cooked with saffron and cardamom.
I can’t wait to try both of your recipes. Thanks!
It sounds and looks delicious. It would have never occured to me to use saffron in yogurt. Intriguing!
You are Good !
Yogurt and saffron sounds too good a combo.I love shrikhands as such a lot!
Do you think adding granulated sugar as opposed to powdered or fine sugar makes any difference in texture?