“Homemade Jambhul (Black Plum) Curds (Yogurt/Dahi) and Khatta~MeetHa~ TeekHa Lassi” … Preparing set curds with addition of fruit pulp for the first time … Just gave it a try, though it took little more time to set than normal curds, It was got set perfectly … Prepared Lassi with addition of little bit more of the pulp … It was awesome, I guess tongue is never satisfied and always wants something more … Sigh what next I wonder …
** Setting curds with addition of fruit pulp was something that I always wanted to do, but never got round to doing it, somehow it always took the back seat. When my Mom who had gone to Australia in 2000 came back and told me about the flavored curds with some fruit pieces, I always wanted to try them. A few failed attempts, made me loose interest. So I just made smoothies with curds and fruit pulp and enjoyed the same. I never bothered to give it another try, frankly it never crossed my mind as I was so busy in life that I never got round to doing anything much those days. I just bought them at exorbitant prices and ate whenever I felt like, though it pinched me to waste money on such a small pack that hardly had a few spoons of it in them. It actually never satisfied you completely and there was always the craving to eat more.
** In the last 6 months, my path of recovery has been really wonderful and my desire to prepare new items have cropped up again. I know, man is never satisfied, always wants more be it food, cloth or anything even love. The more you get, the more you want. So when I walked round the malls and saw them laid beautifully in rows with different flavors etc. my thought went back to my failed attempts and I tried to analyze where I had gone wrong. But as it was almost 2 decades back, I gave up cracking my brains and went on a search on google. Fruit curd were there in plenty, but all showed one’s with addition of eggs, where the fruit was blended by cooking. Well, I want to give a try to those too, but here I wanted curds; yes I wanted set curds.
** One of my friend said, oh it’s so simple and when I asked the recipe, she said just strain the curds in a cloth and add in the fruit pulp to the thick mass and mix it and the curd is ready. Agghhh but that is shrikand sort or again smoothie type I thought, but resisted yelling. I thought forget it, I will try my own way and at the most I will have to dump it, no issues but at least I will have the satisfaction of trying out. So I went about my own way and tried this out with Jambhul (Black / Purple Plum) as I had only that fruit available at home. I was a little bit skeptical about jambhul as I would have preferred either strawberries or mango, but then I thought why not, after all I had empty it. I had bought it to prepare Ice Cream and the loveliest part was I got three dishes done in one go. I remove the pulp, ground it and used it in making ice cream, setting it with curds and added on some to the lassi.
** Ok now let us move on to the curds and lassi part, will add on my method of same while Ice Cream I will add on later …
** About Milk : There are actually 2 ways you can use milk in this setting of curds … (1) You can boil full fat milk and reduce it a little bit by simmering for 5-10 minutes in order to thicken the milk OR (2) You can use skimmed milk with adding of skimmed milk powder. I used the second method as I wanted to make it with minimum fat content. Also I always use skimmed milk for most of my recipes.
** To make Jambul Fruit Puree : Wash and rinse about 500 gms of jambuls well under running water. Allow to drain well. Put it in a wide vessel and pour 2 cups of hot boiling water over it. Mix with a spoon and cover and keep it aside for an hour. Mix once in between if needed. Now remove the pulp portion only from the jambuls with hand and keep them aside. Put the seed portion to which there will still be some fleshy portion stuck back into the waster and crush well with hand to release as much as possible the flesh portion. You will lovely purple colored water. Remove the seeds and discard them. Drain and keep the water aside to be used for lassi.
** Put the collected jambhul pulp portion into a mixer grinder and grind it to a very fine paste. The ground pulp should be very smooth and fine. Pass it through a sieve and collect the pulp and discard the residue if any. This pulp will be used for ice cream and setting of curds as well as a little bit for lassi too.
** Preparing and setting of Jambhul fruit Curds : Add one full cup of milk in a ovenproof glass ware dish and heat it in microwave for 1 minute to warm it up. Remove and add in 2-3 tsp of skimmed milk powder and 1 tblsp of sugar and mix them well. There should be no trace of lumps or powders in between and the sugar should have melted and mixed in. The mixture should be smooth. You can use a blender if need be. You can also heat it on flame / gas stove, instead of microwaving. I just find it easier to warm in it and then set the curds too in the same bowl. Just keep in mind that the milk should be slightly warm after mixture of milk powder and sugar too.
** Note : The purpose of adding in milk powder or boiling till it slightly condenses is to make the milk thicker so that when you add in the fruit pulp it does not thin out but comes to normal milk consistency and gives good and well set curds.
** Mix in 2 tblps of the prepared jambul paste and 1 large tablespoon of normal curds to the milk mixture and blend all well with a spoon or a wired beater. Keep covered in a warm place for the fruit added curds to get set properly. Keep a check if it has set once the time crosses 3-4 hours. The time of setting depends upon the climate conditions of the place. In a warm place it sets faster while in cold place it takes much more time and you may have to keep it in a preheated oven or hot case.
** Though normally my curds set in within maximum 4 -6 hours. This one took a little more time and I have no knowledge as to why. Maybe the milk was not warm enough as I was scared to keep it more warm lest when the jamun / jambhul pulp gets added it curdles. This has happened before, so I did not want to take any chance. If the milk is too hot, even normal curds get curdled if you add in the culture for setting. Anyway it took about 8 hours but got set nicely and I could scoop it and eat the same well without water leaving away from the same. Keep it in the fridge for at least 4 hours to get chilled before serving.
** For Preparation of Lassi : I put in a mixer grinder one cup of thick milk, half a cup jambul pulp, little bit of chilly powder, 1 tblsp of sugar, salt to taste and 2 cups of thick curds and ground it to a smooth paste. I then added on the jambul seeds crushed and drained water and further blended it well. Lassi is done and ready. Keep it the fridge and serve it chilled.
** “Homemade Jambhul (Black Plum) Curds (Yogurt/Dahi) and Khatta~MeetHa~ TeekHa Lassi” is done and ready to be served. Serve the lassi or the fruit based curd mid morning to beat the summer heat. It not only tastes delicious, it gives you some strength to go through the morning heat to get your work pressure done. Nothing like coolants during summer when hunger takes a back seat. Curds are wholesome and good for health and here I have used both skimmed milk and skimmed milk curds so it is that much healthier. Enjoy these with your family and friends and do give me a feed back.
** Note : I am sure this one will taste much yummier with mango pulp or strawberries which are actually next on my list. You may replace the same quantity of any other fruit of your choice and prepare the curds and relish them chilled.
** Do check on the following link given below for the recipe of Jambul / Black plum juice. I have included some health benefits of Jambul there and you can have a glance of the same too. It is always interesting and knowledgeable to know a little bit about the benefits of the fruits and vegetables so that we can incorporate them into our daily diets as an when necessary.
** Here is the link to the Recipe ......
** You can also follow the link given below for the preparation and setting up of normal simple curds from milk. I have given the detailed procedure before, so I have not included it here. You may go through the link if you want a fair knowledge of the same.
** Here is the link to the Recipe ......
** An Earnest Request : There are many more recipes of similar type in the blog. For all my Recipes, use the search option or the label section in the Blog. If you are still not able to find it please leave a message in comment section or mail me the same. You can also go to my page (add on the left side of blog) and leave a message and I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible … Thank you.
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