SHUFTAA. ..THE TRADITIONAL KASHMIRI SWEET DISH

                                         

SHUFTAA.

In DAV School , i  had heard this word " Shufta " from my teacher Pandit Narayan joo Miyan. He would generally say to us :
" Kolla Shufta karaai "
                    Or
"You boy , i shall make shufta of you"

This word remained embedded in my memory. Post marriage, my wife added one more item to our shivratri Cuisine : SHUFTAA..

Now,  Apart from other dishes, Shufta is invariably prepared in our house on shivratri day.

SHUFTA

It is prepared with  cocunut, almonds, small pieces of fried  cheese, cashewnuts and khas-khaas (Poppy seeds) . Hard skin of the cocunut is  scrubbed away and it is  cut to small pieces.
Fried cheese cut to small pieces is mixed with all and then boiled  in simple sugar syrup or chaashni for about one hour  or more till it turns soft. It is then Cooled and served. No need to re-heat even if kept in regrigerator .Better soak almonds   in water overnight to peel off  the skin effortlessly .

And shufta has been traditional sweet  dish of Kashmir..In olden days, it was seved as sweet dish in marriages  to Baratis who accompanied the Bridegroom . It was brought in small containers or metal pots  and served with spoons to all Baratis who sat inside the shamiyana for meals. For various reasons,  Gulab jamun replaced shufta as sweet dish in marriage functions.



I will not suggest adding walnuts to shufta  because other than seasonal stuff, old walnuts turn dry ,oily and a little bitter to taste. You must be 100% sure about walnuts in this preparation  and better use fresh seasonal walnuts after soaking them in water overnight to peel off the skin. Shufta is not to be confused with Sund Panjeeri prepared in some  Punjabi households more specifically in Jammu .

(Autar Mota)




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