The measuring cups

Recently married, moved to US and no glorious history of cooking - that’s my introduction!

With initial days spend on getting used to the American ‘weather’ my hidden talent of experimenting with spices and edibles started coming out. I explored ways to make delicious dishes and dreamt of bringing them to reality in my own kitchen. Thanks to the growing expanse of cyberspace, I got to read a lot about a particular preparation from number of experts giving a base for comparison and experimentation.

Though my history of cooking is not ‘glorious’ I still have some. This history include preparation of selected dishes done with utmost care and sincerity followed by special marketing during lunch time in office, in the days when I was working. The history also include a couple of cakes, baked successfully of course J .

Now, the best part about reading from recipes and following them in the kitchen is that they tell you how much of what. 1 cup of flour, ½ cup of sugar and so on. Although my mother advised me to get habitual to use measured quantities, I always did it with an estimation. Not that it did not work well, but I was never confident that I can make the dish again with the same taste!

When we came in the corporate apartment here in Atlanta, among the other items provided for kitchen, they gave a set of measuring cups. 1 cup, 2/3 cup, ½ cup, ¼ cup, 1tsp and so on. I found this very interesting. All the more, when I started reading the recipes and knew how much of what, I felt a little more powerful!

The measuring cups now give me confidence that I can bring the same taste to a dish anytime I want!

****Did you know: 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon****

SHRIKHAND

Ingredients
1 kg. thick curd
15 gms SugaRite or 3/4 cup powdered sugar
a few strands saffron
1 tablespoon warm milk
2 teaspoons cardamom powder (elaichi)
For the garnish
slivers of pistachios and almonds
Method
1.
Hang the curds in a muslin cloth in a cool place for approximately 3 hours until all the liquid (whey) has drained off.
2.
Rub the saffron into the warm milk until it dissolves.
3.
Mix together the hung curds, SugaRite or sugar, saffron mixture and cardamom in a bowl and churn using a hand blender.
4.
Place in the refrigerator.
5.
Serve cold garnished with slivers of pistachios and almonds.