Leith Mess - Shrikhand

Shrikhand has been served a few times at Chai Lounge and its always been well received. I felt like I wanted to give it a bit more texture and when I read the ingredients of an Eton mess I thought it would work well with srikhand. Shrikhand goes well with soft fruit like mango, strawberries, raspberries or pomegranate.

Shrikhand (serves 8-12)

200g castor sugar or icing sugar (I find castor sugar makes the shrikhand too watery so prefer icing sugar)

1kg full fat Greek yoghurt

250g mascarpone cheese

3 teaspoons crushed pistachios

1 teaspoon cardamom powder

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Method

1. Place the Greek yoghurt in a muslin cloth, tie tightly with a string and hang it somewhere so that it can drain. Place a dish underneath it to collect the water. Or you could use a fine sieve instead of a muslin cloth. Traditionally it’s left for 24hrs but I find that 2-3hrs are good enough.
2. Remove the yoghurt and place into a large bowl. Add the sugar ,mascarpone cheese, pistachios, cardamom powder and nutmeg and mix well. Taste and if you want more sugar add a bit at a time and mix well.

Meringue

1egg white

55g castor sugar

pinch of cardamom powder

1. Heat the oven at 100 deg
2. Beat egg whites till soft peaks are formed.
3. Add sugar, one teaspoon at a time and beat well till stiff peaks are formed. Add the cardamom powder together with sugar
4. Spoon mixture on a grease proof paper and bake for 1.5hrs.
5. Switch off oven, leave the meringues in the oven but leave the oven door slightly open. This will make them crispy and have a gooey inside texture

To serve

To make the Leith mess I used strawberries and pomegranate but any soft fruit would do. Place crushed meringues and chopped strawberries at the bottom of the serving bowl. Place a few tablespoon of shrikhand on top and garnish with more crushed meringue, roughly chopped pistachios, strawberries and pomegranate.