Gudi Padwa Special - Shrikhanda

I am still on a high after India won the world Cup. It was crazy on the streets of India. In India, patriotism and cricket run in the same vein. With a 3 thousand year old history, 500 different languages, and  every conceivable religion on the face of the planet - cricket unites a billion and a half of us. Its euphoric.
Gudi Padwa is a new year as per the lunar calendar. Since we are starting new year on such a high note , I though of making Shrikhanda from scratch ( Not that I have any other choice since chakka is not available here).
Preparation is fairly simple but the prep time is a lot. This dish cannot be whipped up at the last minute unless you have ready made "chakka". The prep efforts are not much , its only time that you need. Chakka is basically strained or hung curd. We'll be eating this with Puris and some Masale Bhat. we'll post those recipes shortly.


Ingredients
1 tub Yogurt ( I used trader Joe's Organic full fat variety)
1 cup sugar
1 t spn cardamom powder
1 t spn nutmeg powder
a few strands of saffron:


Method:
Use a cotton cloth or cheese cloth to hang the curd. we hung the curd at night and in the morning we got a nice solid ball of chakka. This is how it looked.

Just mix well and add sugar. Mix well till sugar is nicely incorporated in the curd. Add nutmeg powder and cardamom powder. Soak saffron in 2 tbl spoon warm milk. Add the milk to the mixture, mix well.
I did not have saffron on hand so I skipped that part.
Serve this with puris.

I hope this new year is full of happiness, excitement and your wishes coming true. Have a great year ahead.