Shahi Tukra

White bread is fried and then milk and sugar are added to it.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

• 8 slices white bread, crusts off
• 150 g ghee, for frying
• 1 litre whole milk
• 150 g sugar
• a generous pinch of saffron
• 6 cloves
• 6 cardamom pods, seeds ground
• 50 g almonds and pistachios, slivered

Method

1. WHITE BREAD IS FRIED AND THEN MILK AND SUGAR ARE ADDED TO IT. Its article gives the method in one sentence and the order is the dish: THE WHITE BREAD IS FRIED in oil or ghee, AFTER WHICH MILK AND SUGAR ARE ADDED, and it is flavoured with SAFFRON, CLOVES AND CARDAMOM. Milk and sugar added to the bread, not a syrup it is dipped in -- so this sets into something closer to a baked pudding, and the milk has to reduce around the bread rather than soak into it and stop. Double Ka Meetha, as on its own page, is the pair to this and its article calls it A SIMILAR DISH USING A DIFFERENT TYPE OF BREAD; it also uses a sugar syrup rather than milk.
2. THE BREAD IS FRIED IN GHEE UNTIL PROPERLY GOLDEN AND FIRM. Not toasted. It has to hold up under a litre of milk, and pale fried bread goes to mush.
3. THE CRUSTS COME OFF AND THE SLICES ARE HALVED DIAGONALLY. Crusts stay chewy and do not take the milk evenly.
4. THE MILK IS REDUCED BEFORE IT MEETS THE BREAD. A litre down to about six hundred millilitres with the sugar, saffron and cardamom. Thin milk poured over fried bread makes a wet dish rather than a rich one.
5. THE CLOVES ARE ITS ARTICLE'S OWN AND THEY ARE UNUSUAL HERE. Six, whole, in the milk as it reduces, and fished out before it is poured. Clove is not in any other sweet in this group.
6. THE BREAD GOES IN A SINGLE LAYER AND THE MILK IS POURED OVER. Not stacked. A second layer never takes up the milk properly.
7. IT RESTS BEFORE IT IS SERVED. Twenty minutes at least, so the bread drinks and the dish sets slightly.
8. IT IS SERVED EITHER TEMPERATURE. Warm it is softer, chilled it is firmer and the saffron reads more strongly.
9. ITS ARTICLE NAMES A RELATIVE OUTSIDE THE COUNTRY. It calls the dish akin to the Egyptian om Ali, which is not a page here.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes