Thandaai Cheesecake

Continuing with my holi excitement I'm sharing today traditional Thandaai with a twist :)
Flavours of thandaai mixed with creamy cheesecake :) :) sounds exciting na... :)
Normally cheesecake is made with cream cheese which is a big no in my family :( Nobody liked the cheesecake I made last time with cream cheese. So I made the Indian version of cheese cake :p with the easily available ingredients .
And the best thing was it was approved by both, my son and hubby loved it. <3 <3 
Yayy happy me :):)
So here we go!!!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Cardamom flavoured cookies crumb
• 2-3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 200 gms hung curd
• 150 gms cottage cheese ( approx.)
• 100 gms condensed milk 
• 3-4 tbsp thandaai mix
• 50 gms fresh cream
• Sugar to taste
• Few drops of rose essence
• 12-15 strands of saffron
• A pinch of turmeric
• Handful chopped Pistachio nuts to garnish
  

For the thandai mix:
Ingredients:

• 20-25 almonds 
• 20-25 cashews 
• 20- 25 pistachio
• 2 tbsp fennel seeds
• 3 tbsp poppy seeds
• 2 tbsp melon seeds
• 8-10 black peppercorns
• 8-10 green cardamom

 

Directions:

• Grind all the ingredients to a fine powder.
• Store in an air tight container.
  

For the cheese cake:

Directions:

• In a bowl mix together cookie crumb and butter until moistened.
• Spoon the crumbs into glasses, lightly press with the back of a spoon and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile blend together hung curd, cottage cheese, condensed milk and thandaai mix in a blender until combined.
• Pour this mixture over the cookie crumbs and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
• Next prepare the topping. In a bowl whip some fresh cream with sugar, rose essence, turmeric powder and saffron strands ( leave some strands for garnishing) 
• Spoon this cream on the top of cheese cake
• Garnish with some chopped pistachio nuts and saffron strands.
• Serve chilled :)