Ok here's what i did....i cut 10 slices of bread diagonally, didn't remove the edges (optional). In a frying pan i took 1-1.5 tablespoons of ghee and fried 2-3 pieces of bread at a time till golden brown...dint want to deep fry them to avoid the extra ghee... u could if u like!i also fried some of the pieces in oil and they tasted almost the same as the ones fried in ghee. i plan on frying all of them in oil next time.
in a sauce pan, add 6 cups of milk and let it boil for a few minutes with 6-8 freshly crushed cardamoms.. reduce the heat and add a pinch of saffron. Add the condensed milk little at a time and whisk to combine with the milk. add 1 can of nestle cream...this gives the sauce richness, texture and flavour. whisk to combine well. check for sweetness. u can reserve a quarter of the condensed milk in the earlier step and add after the cream to be sure of sweetness. i didnt use any sugar at all and they were sweet enough to our liking.
let the sauce simmer for 5-10 minutes on low heat. add yellow food coloring if u like
in another frying pan, i took 2-pieces of fried bread and added 1.5-2 (serving spoons/dishing spoons) of the cream sauce and waited for the bread to soak in on both sides. i let the sauce cook in the other pan on very low heat all the time. i did 2 pieces of bread at a time as i was experimenting....i think a better way of achieving this would be to line the bread pieces in a big pan and adding almost half of the sauce prepared for the breads to soak up. the idea is to make the breads soft to be able to absorb the sauce. this is also the step where ppl have different versions of shahi tukray....some let them cook in the entire sauce (mom does that). once all the bread pieces are soft, line them in a serving dish and pour the remaining sauce over it. chill over night. the sauce thickens over night. i basted the bread 2-3 times during the day. Garnished with pistachos and served after dinner. In-laws and dad loved it
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