Shahi Tukda With Rose Pudding

Photo: sonia gupta

Ingredients

4 Brown Bread: slices

Saffron: few strands

1/2 cup Sugar:

1 cup Water:

1/4 teaspoon Cardamom:

2 teaspoons Rose Water:

Pistachio, Almonds: few for garnishing

Sandwich cutters of different shapes

Preparation

I chose brown bread and cut it in two shapes A flower and A Star, using sandwich cutter. If you want to keep it simple you can also cut the bread in a diagonal shape through the middle, trimming away the edges. Using Brown bread will ensure a rich brown color to the toast.

To prepare the bread, the traditional method is to heat Ghee or Cooking oil in a frying pan and toast the slices of bread till they are crisp and light brown. Alternate way to prepare the bread is to toast it in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes.

To prepare aromatic sugar syrup boil water and sugar together for 15 minutes on low heat. Add cardamom powder and few saffron strands to enhance the flavor of the syrup. Add Rose water to make it even more fragrant.

Rose Pudding

Ingredients:

Whole Cream Milk : 2 cup

Rose Water: 2-3 tsp

Grated Carrots : 1/4 cup

Cardamom powder: 1 tsp

Fresh heavy cream or condensed milk : ½ cup

Sugar: half cup or to taste (Don’t add sugar if using condensed milk)

Pistachio, Almonds : 10-12 finely sliced

Saffron : Few strands

Method for Pudding:

In a heavy bottomed pan, take 2 cups of whole cream milk & bring it to boil. Wash and grate carrots, add these to the boiling milk. (you can make the Pudding without Carrots if you like )

Let the mix simmer on high heat for 15-20 minutes until carrots are done. Keep Stirring & scrapping the sides. Once the mix reduces, let it cool and to smoothen give it a churn in a blender. Put it on low heat again and add cardamom powder, cream, sugar, saffron strands dissolved in warm milk. Stir the pudding for another 10 minutes and take off the heat. Now add rose water and garnish with saffron and chopped nuts.

Assembling our dessert:

We can assemble & enjoy this dessert in two ways:

The Crunchy Sandwich Variation - Soak our frie d bread in the flavored sugar syrup (ensure the the bread is completely soaked & oozing sugar syrup) & generously layer in the Rose pudding like you’d do for a sandwich. Put another piece of br ead soaked in sugar syrup on the top. Garnish it with chopped pistachios and almonds.

Crunchy Sandwich Shahi Tukda]

The Soft and Yummy Variation – Immerse 2 pieces of fried bread in the Rose Pudding (for a min of 25-30 mins to let the bread s oak the pudding completely). Now we will take out these pieces and layer these, one on top of another. Generously pour the pudding on the top and garnish with chopped pistachios and almonds.

Soft & Yummy Shahi Tukda]

Voila, a rich and royal treat is ready to be enjoyed with loved ones.