Hey foodies, watch my video on the preparation of Homemade Curd by clicking on the youtube link of my channel given below.
Curd is an essential component of an Indian diet. We use it in many ways in various dishes like Lassi, Kadhi, Raita, etc. It can be home made or store bought. I see many people face difficulties preparing homemade curd and prefer store bought curd. But I say that making curd at home is an easy process if you follow some right tips and tricks. I follow them and never have faced any difficulty in forming the curd with required thickness. I will share my recipe now. Please try it and let me know how it turned out for you when you followed my method.
INGREDIENTS :
(1) 1.5 litres of full cream milk
(2) 1.5 tablespoons of starter / culture (previously made curd)
METHOD:
(1) Pour 1.5 litres of full cream milk in a utensil and heat it on a low flame of the gas stove.
(2) Keep stirring to reduce the formation of layers of cream on the milk if you do not want the curd to have a layer of cream on it. I do not mind the formation of cream and I let it be there when I make curd on other days.
But today I will show you by stirring and removing the cream that gets formed.
(3) Once the milk comes to a boil, keep stirring and simmering for 20 more minutes. This helps in enhancing the flavour and making the curd all the more thick. Continuous stirring is necessary to prevent the milk from burning at the bottom. Also, you may skip this step of simmering for 20 more minutes if you are okay with having moderately thick curd.
(4) After 20 mins, turn off the gas flame and allow the boiled milk to cool. Cover with a lid and let it cool until it becomes lukewarm.
(5) Uncover the utensil after one and half hour approximately. You can see that milk cream has been formed on the surface of the milk. Collect this cream of milk into a bowl and keep aside. We will not need it in this recipe, but it can be used in other ways.
(6) Check the temperature of the milk this way by pouring it with a spoon on your hand. It should be lukewarm as much as you can tolerate.
(7) For Starter, I am using a store bought Prabhat Dairy Dahi. You may use any brand of curd. A Starter is a Culture that you add to the boiled and cooled milk to form a curd.
I follow a simple technique while adding culture to the milk. I just add 1 tablespoon of culture / starter to 1 litre of milk and 2 tablespoons to 2 litres of milk and so on. Here as I have taken 1.5 litres of milk, I will add 1.5 tablespoons of culture.
(8) Beat the culture very well with a spoon. Then add 1 cup of milk to this starter and mix well.
The starter is ready.
(9) Pour this starter into the entire milk.
(10) After adding the starter / culture, mix well with a whisker for 2 minutes or until the curd has blended very well with the milk.
(11) Now, you may keep this mixture in the same bowl to set curd or you may transfer it to another container, which can be a steel, porcelain pot or a clay pot. I have poured the milk plus culture mixture in two small clay pots, a steel container and a porcelain pot.
Here I have shown that I have covered the utensil and kept it in a corner of the kitchen table or any warm place to form curd. We have to keep it for 6-12 hours depending on the weather conditions.
(12) Alternatively, pour the mixture after whisking into the clay pots, a steel utensil and a porcelain pot. Cover each of the containers with a lid and keep them in a corner of the kitchen table or any warm place to form curd.
Do no disturb or move the utensil until the curd is formed during this time frame of 6-12 hours.
During Summer, it takes 6-8 hours to form curd.
During Winter, it takes 10-12 hours or even more to form curd.
(13) After 10 hours, I opened the lid of the containers and found that a thick, creamy curd has formed.
(14) Now, refrigerate the curd to avoid it from turning sour. This way it also becomes thicker.
You may use this homemade curd to make various types of lassi, raita, in kadhi and so on.