Chhanar Jilipi / Chhena Jalebi - Fried sweetmeat made of cottage cheese drunken with sugar syrup

This post is late by more than a week. It was supposed to be uploaded immediately after 14^th June’13, the day of Jamai Shoshthi. I had made this quintessential Bengali sweet for the first time that day and had dared to try because the day was so special to my hubby.

Jamai Shoshthi is a traditional Bengali ritual with a slight religious touch where the son-in-law is pampered and fed by his mother-in-law. In our decade long married life, my mother has managed to be with us during this occasion a couple of times. Needless to say, both the times, she took excellent care of my hubby.

In her absence, this great responsibility, very naturally comes upon me. I, being a passionately-foodie and love-to-cook type person, welcome this opportunity to cook up a delectable spread, which my whole family relish.

This time, though I had cooked a range of mutton, fish and typical Bengali shaak-shukto, I wanted to make something sweet for him and zeroed in on Chhanar Jilipi or Chhena Jalebi.  This is a jalebi, but unlike the traditional fermented besan made one, it is made with Chhana (cottage cheese) mixed with Khoya (dried up milk).

Ingredients

For Jilipis:

Paneer(Chana) – freshly prepared  from 2 litres of milk
Khoya – ½ cup
Maida – 4 tbsp
Sooji (semolina) – 2 tbsp

Baking powder – ½ tsp
Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
Oil for frying

For sugar syrup:

Sugar 3 cup
Water 3 cup

Cardamom powder – 1tsp

Method

Prepare chhana freshly at  home adding a Tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar in boiling milk. Drain the excess water and run tap water through the chhana to get the smell of lemon/vinegar from it. Try to get out all excess water out of it.

Take chhana and khoya in a flat bottomed vessel and mix well. Rub it continuously with your palm and knead it for quite sometime till it becomes a soft & smooth dough without any lump and doesn’t stick in hand.

Add maida , semolina and cardamom powder and baking powder and knead it well to form a soft and smooth dough.

Keep the dough  in a bowl covered by a moist cloth or cling film. Put the bowl in room temperature for 1 ½ - 2 hours.

Divide the dough into  equal sized round balls . Now roll each balls with your palm into a long thick  rope. Coil the rope into  one and half turn leaving small space in between, as shown in the picture.

Heat oil in a pan and when it’s smoking hot, put the flame in low. Slowly drop the jilipis in oil and deep fry till they turn golden yellow.

Prepare the sugar syrup with putting sugar and water in given ratio and by boiling the syrup till the sugar gets melted completely with the consistency is near to one string. Put some crushed cardamom in the syrup.

Take out the fried jilipis from the pan and drop into the warm syrup and keep them fully immersed in it for 3 to 4 hours.

Juicy Chhanar Jilipis are ready to be served as sweet ending to a sumptuous meal.

Chicken Bharta Roll – deep fried shredded chicken pancake roll

As I was mentioning in my last blog post, children become hyper active during summer vacation. They would be running, jumping and playing all day, as a result of which they would feel hungry every now and then.

The most common request my daughters would put to me as soon as I return from office in the evening, is to make some snacks for them. It’s a challenge for me to think out something new and innovative every time.

That day, confronted with a similar request, I was at my wit’s end to make something attractively delicious. Then I remembered that I had got some boneless chicken in my freezer, which I had got last night. It was meant for making something for the dinner but for some reason, I couldn’t make it.

Like a lightning bolt, this idea came to my mind. It’s a fusion of Chinese Spring Roll and typical Bong chops. I must say, the end result came out to be so crisp and yummy that the plate was finished within a little time. As I had to shred the chicken to make this dish, I named it Chicken Bharta Roll.

Ingredients

Filling:

Chicken Boneless – 250 gms

Onion – 2 Large, finely chopped

Ginger – 1 tbsp, finely chopped

Garlic – 6 cloves, finely chopped

Green chilli – 3 to 4, finely chopped

Green peas – ¼ cup, boiled

Garam Masala powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Salt as per taste

Chopped coriander leaves

Coating & batter:

Flour – 1 cup

Egg – 2 nos

Chilli powder – ½ tsp

Cumin powder – ½ tsp

Corn flour – 2 Tbsp

Salt as per taste

Bread crumbs for coating

Method

Wash the chicken pieces and boil them in a pressure cooker with little salt. Take the pieces in a mixing bowl and shred them into fine pieces. Keep the bowl aside.

Heat  little oil in a pan, add chopped onion and fry them until they become softer. Add grated ginger, garlic and chopped green chilli. Fry them in high flame for 2–3 minutes and then add turmeric powder, garam masala powder and salt.

Add chicken and boiled green peas. Mix them well, sauté on high flame for 3–4 minutes. Add chopped coriander and mix well. Filling is ready. Take it in a bowl and let it cool.

Now take a mixing bowl and add flour, salt, chilli powder, cumin powder and 1 egg and finally add some water. Beat the mixture nicely to make a thin batter.

Take and flat bottom nonstick pan and heat it.   Pour some batter and spread it over the surface. Once it is cooked it will look like a thin pancake. Take it out and keep in a plate. 

Pour some chicken filling over the pancake and roll it in the way shown in the photo. Repeat the process to make more rolls.

In a bowl, beat another egg and mix with 2 tbsp of cornflour and salt. Dip the rolls in the  batter and coat them evenly with bread crumb spread on a plate. Once they are coated well, they would be ready to fry.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the rolls till they turn golden brown in color and crispy.

Take them out in paper towel to remove the excess oil. Chicken Bharta rolls are now ready to be served with your choice of sauce.

Cheesy Veggie Quesadillas - as easy as a child's play

All through the year, kids look forward to their summer vacation. When it comes, they become so happy that they become hyper active and tend to go out of bounds. As a working mom, my job to keep them engaged with studies, activities & games, is getting tougher day by day.

My elder daughter Kuhu, who is normally a well-behaved 8 year old, keeps on jumping on her toes during these days, as if her feet are tied on spring boards. One of her new found passion this vacation has been spending time in kitchen with me. She would watch me intently and try to help me by running errands.

The other day, she came running to me saying that she had just watched a cookery program in TV where they showed how to cook Quesadillas. She was very excited and almost forced me to agree to her demand that we would prepare Quesadillas at home and …………….………she would help me in cooking actively.

Well, it turned out to be a really enjoyable experience. Except for cutting and frying, she did all the hard work including kneading dough, cutting in shapes, making the parcels and sealing them at the ends. The Quesadillas were fabulous and both my daughters enjoyed eating them as evening snacks.

Ingredients

Onion (finely chopped) – 1 no

Tomato (finely chopped) – 1 no

Capsicum (finely diced) – 1 no

Corn kernel (boiled) – ½ cup

Green chili (chopped) – 1 no

All purpose flour – 1 ½  cup

Shredded mozzarella cheese – 1 cup

Coriander leaves (chopped) – 1 sprig

Crushed black pepper – ½ tsp

Cooking oil – 2 Tbsp

Salt – as per taste

Method

Wash vegetables separately and keep them in a strainer so that water drains off completely.

Mix together Flour, salt and 1 tbsp of oil in a large bowl. Add water slowly, mixing with hand to make a soft dough. 

Knead a few minutes on floured surface until smooth and elastic. Lubricate top with oil, put back in bowl and let it rest, covered for 10 minutes.

Spread the dough on a floured surface and roll it out into a big size and thickness you prefer. Take a cookie cutter or a stainless steel bowl with sharp edges and cut out small tortillas out of it (as shown in the photo).

Take one tortilla and spread 1 tsp shredded cheese on it and then add chopped onion, tomato, coriander leaves and diced capsicum on top of that and finally, sprinkle some salt and pepper.

Take another tortilla. Wet the edges with water and cover the tortilla with vegetable with it. Seal the edges by pressing with a fork. Repeat the process with some more tortillas. Your Quesadillas are ready to fry.

Heat oil in a pan with around ½ inch depth.  Fry the Quesadillas, turning over occasionally, until they turn golden yellow. Transfer with slotted spoon to paper towel to drain off extra oil.

To make Salsa, take the left over chopped onion, tomato & coriander leaves in a mixing bowl and add one chopped green chili. Add little bit chilli sauce (I didn’t add much as I was making them for my kids), tomato ketchup and sprinkle a little pepper powder and salt to taste. Mix it well. You can make this beforehand and refrigerate for an hour.

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Enjoy your evening with smoking hot Quesadilla served with Salsa.