🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Marathi

The Marathi are a people of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The state's cuisine combines vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, and the Maharashtrian thali is named among its traditional meals ². Shrikhand is the best known dairy dish of western India ¹.

Shrikhand is traditionally made at home in western India. Dahi is placed in muslin for 4–8 hours to drain the whey, leaving a solid mass called chakka. This is mixed with sugar, condiments and flavourings. The name comes from the Sanskrit word shikharini ¹.

Churning soured milk gives chhaas, a buttermilk with 1–2% fat. It is mostly drunk at home. Kadhi is made from chhaas: spices and a little gram flour are added, it is brought to the boil and served hot with rice. The recipe varies from region to region ¹.

Milk also has a place in festivals. At Janmashtami, Krishna's birthday, people in Maharashtra break the dahi handi, a pot of curd. Young people form human pyramids to reach it, a custom that recalls the stories of Krishna stealing butter and curd ²³⁴.

Why it matters to you. Shrikhand is not only a home dish: it has a Bureau of Indian Standards specification and an industrial process ¹. To see dahi handi, the advice is to go above all to Mumbai, Goa or Gujarat ⁴.