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.

Easy peasy Mishti Doi (Kolkata styled sweetened yogurt in a jiffy)

Hi friends!! I am back after a long gap of more than 1 year. I had joined a job and was completely busy in settling myself in the big, bad corporate world. However, I’m kind of settled down now and would, once again, continue to share lip-smacking recipes in my blog. I’m back with a new & improved look of my blog site. Stay tuned with my blog for more interesting recipes.

What would be a more auspicious day to start a new lease of blogging life than Poila Boisakh, the 1^st day of Bengali Lunar Calendar? And, what would be a better choice of food than Mishti Doi (Kolkata styled Sweetened Yogurt), a quintessential Bengali sweet delicacy? Wish you all Shubho Noboborsho!

I never thought I could prepare Mishti Doi at my house and that also in such a jiffy and minimum effort, till I met Bipasha di, my sister-in-law in Dubai a couple of weeks back. She has been preparing this at home for many months and has received lots of appreciation from friends. She has been kind enough to share this recipe with me and here I am, sharing this with my readers. Thank you, Bipasha Di

Ingredients

Full cream yogurt – 1 kg

Condensed Milk – 600 gm

Brown Sugar – 2 tsp – you can use white sugar too, but brown sugar gives a very good flavor

Red food color – 2 drops – optional, in case you want to give it some color

Saffron – 4 to 5 strands – optional, in case you love the kesariya taste & flavor

Method

Drain excess water from the yogurt. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly with a hand blender till it becomes a smooth mixture. Pour the mix in a microwave proof bowl

If you are using any color or flavor like saffron or vanilla, mix it now. Put the bowl inside the microwave and put it in high for 6 minutes

After 6 minutes, get the bowl out and rest it outside for around 1 hour till it cools down. Refrigerate it for minimum 2 hours and enjoy chilled Mishti Doi, Kolkata styled, made in a jiffy at home!!

Kids delight- Mango custard

In this season when you can see the king of fruits everywhere, "Mango Custard" can be one of scrumptious dessert you can opt for your li'l one. I usually prepare it in the morning and keep it in refrigerator and when my kid comes back from school, she gets delighted finding a big bowl of her favorite custard with a cherry on top.

Ingredients:

Mango                         1
Milk                             2 cups
Vanilla custard powder 2 tbsp
Sugar                          3 tbsp
Powdered sugar           1 tbsp
Fresh cream (optional)  1/2 cup
Dry fruits (optional)

Method:

1. Peel the mango and squeeze out the pulp from it. Take the pulp in a blender and make a puree of it.
2. Take 1/4 cup of cold milk in and cup and add custard powder. Mix it well so as to avoid formation of lumps.
3. Beat fresh cream in a bowl  with powdered sugar to make soft peak. keep it aside.
4. Heat a pan and add remaining milk. When the milks boils add sugar and stir for a couple of minutes. Now add milk mixed with custard powder and stir again for few seconds. Finally add  mango puree and stir for a minute. When the consistency of custard becomes thick . add 2 tbsp of  fresh cream (you can make this preparation without adding fresh cream also).you can now add some dry fruits  like chopped almond, cashew, raisins.

Pour it in a bowl and add some fresh cream on top. Now keep it in refrigerator  so that custard becomes thick. Serve it chilled.

Muskmelon Banana Smoothie

Like almost every kids, my daughter also hate musk melon. So thinking of the nutritious value of this fruit I prepared this smoothie combining Musk melon and Banana specially for kids. It is really very delectable dessert for kids. It is can be made very  quickly and easily without giving much effort and can be served any time throughout the day.

Ingredients:

Musk melon  pieces   1 cup

Banana pieces           1 cup

Yogurt                      1 cup

Milk                          1/2 cup
Sugar                        2 tbsp

Method:

1.  Peel off and  cut Musk melon and Banana  into small piece. Keep them into an air tight box and keep in refrigerator until use. 
2. Put the fruit pieces into an blender and add yogurt and sugar. Blend them for a minute to make a smooth puree. Check the sugar if needed add more. 
3. Pour the mixture in a serving glass and garnish with some musk melon pieces on the top.

Your thick creamy muskmelon banana smoothie is now ready to serve. 

This recipe is on its way to the event "Healing food-Banana" in Krithis blog.

This recipe is also participating the the 'Kids delight event' and Srivalli's blog.

Sheera / Kesari bath - My 100th Post

Yes friends, you read it right, this is my 100th post! It's took me almost 3 years long journey to reach this number, which I think is too long. But inspite of a big break for a whole year of 2010  finally I achieved this milestone. Last year after I almost quit blogging, lot of remarkable changes happened in this blogging world. After resuming my blog I found myself far behind in this race and then I had to put lot of extra efforts to catch up with all. Moreover its all your continuous support my dear friends that inspired me with your wonderful and motivational comments. I truly appreciate my friends cooperation that made me stand here. Now 100 posts later, I still take lots of fun and enthusiasm in cooking for my blog, capturing those moments and writing posts expressing my thought in front of you. I even got lot of friends through my blog; who are very close to me  now. I will keep on blogging and experiments on my kitchen will continue to be posted. I want to celebrate this moment with a very sweet post with "kesari bath", which I named as "Kuchh meetha ho jaye".

Kesari bath is a very popular dessert that is included in all types of South Indian meal you order in almost all the restaurants in Bangalore. It is popular in northern India also as Sheera and Sooji halwa but that actually is the simpler form using little ghee and wihout using kesar or any other color. When I had it for the first time here I was simply amazed by finding that simple sooji halwa can be made delectable by adding ghee and saffron. The recipe is known to most of  us and so my post is for those who always take pain to go to restaurant to specially have this dessert . They can prepare it easily and enjoy having it at home.

Ingredients:

Semolina (Rawa/sooji)   200 gms Milk 1 cup Ghee 3 tbsp Bayleaves 2 Cardamom powder 1 tsp Raisins 10 gms Cashewnuts 10 gms Sugar 1 cup Saffron 2 pinch soaked in 3 tbsp. of warm milk (Or you can use orange food color)

Method:

1. Take a large nonstick pan and add ghee.Add bay leaves and then add sooji/Rawa and fry them 6 to 8 minutes till it turns yellowish white and we get a nice aroma of roasted sooji.
   
   
2. Add 1 cup of warm milk and 1 and 1/2 cup of boiling water. Now add sugar. Stir continously in reduced flame for about 5 minutes so that sooji absorbe water and If required add some more water so as to get a smooth consistency. add sfron milk or food color. Stir well.
   
   
3. Switch off the  flame a and add Cardamom powder  and dry fruits (cashew and raisins). Stirr well.

Now add 1tbsp of ghee and  cover it with a lid.

Your Kesari bath is now ready to serve. Enjoy!!

Mango Delight / Mango Fool

Mango Delight  is a delectable soft and creamy frozen dessert made of ripe mango specially Alphonso. This is one of the quick soul filling dessert for the summer.  My version of 'Mango Delight' can also be called as 'Mango Fool' is a simple frozen dessert that combine mango with cream in different layers. So, for those of you who always crave for a creamy, soft, chilled and yummy mango dessert, you must give this recipe a go.

Ingredients:

Mango puree                                          1 cup(prepared by blending
                                                               fresh mango pulp).
Vanilla/ Mango custard powder               2 tbsp.
Milk                                                       1 cup
Sugar                                                     4 tbsp
Heavy whipping cream                           1 cup
Icing sugar                                             3 tbsp

Method:

 1. To make custard, take a bowl and add about 1/4 cup of cold milk and then add vanilla/mango custard powder and mix it properly. Heat a pan and boil milk in that. Now add custard powder dissolved in milk and stir well. Add sugar and 1/2 cup of mango puree. Stir again to get a smooth mixture. Switch off the flame and pour the mixture in a bow l and keep it in the fridge.

2. Beat the fresh cream until it forms very soft peaks.Whisk icing sugar also with the cream. Keep he cream in the fridge and take it out just before serving.

3. Take  serving glass and start by layering with chilled mango custard at the bottom and then chilled whipped  cream, now add a layer of mango puree above the cream layer and  then finish off with another layer of cream on the top.

You can garnish with small mango pieces  and fresh mint leaves on the top. Serve this dessert chilled and enjoy this perfect summer delight.

Mango Mousse

In this season when Mango, 'the king of fruits' is available every where, I thought of making something special with this for my  kid. So I started thinking and experimenting for a new dish and finally landed on this wonderful creamy 'Mango Mousse" dessert recipe. This presentation has been conceptualized by my kid.

Ingredients:


Fresh mango puree                                           2 cups
Mango jelly mix powder (available in all stores) 2 tbsp
powdered sugar                                               1/2 cup
Fresh cream                                                     1/2 cup
Water                                                              1/2 cup

Method:


1.Take a pan and boil 1/2 cup water. When the water starts boiling add jelly mix and stir  continuously. Now reduce the flame and add mango puree and 3 tbsp of sugar. Keep on stirring until the consistency becomes thick. Switch of the flame.

2. In a mixing bowl add fresh cream  and 2 tbsp. of powdered sugar. Now beat the cream until soft peak forms. Add the cream to the mango puree mixture and gently fold in with the mixture.

3. Now pour the mixture in small serving bowls or moulds and keep it into the refrigerator for minimum 3 hours till the mixture set into jelly.
Take it out from the fridge and decorate it accordingly and serve chilled.

This recipe is on the way to the 'Fun N Sun' event by Radhika of Tickling palate and 'Healthy Summer' in kurinjikathambam blog.

Imarti

Since I started blogging after a long pause, I will start this sweet beginning with a sweet post. Hope you all will like it.

Imarti is a very popular sweet which is available in all sweet shop. It is basically a variant of 'Jalebi' in which Urad dal batter is used in place of flour. Imarti are usually drier than Jalebi and the shape is also different which is often a small ring in the middle and around which the pattern is made geometrically. Though it is very popular sweet we usually don't try this at home as it is readily available everywhere. Few days back I even didn't know that it is made of urad daal before I got to know from one of my friend. Then thought of giving it a try after seeing the design of the ready made ones and believe me in my first try itself, it came out very nice. though look wise it may be not as perfect as the ready made ones, but it was very good in taste.

Ingredients:

Urad daal 250 gms

Oil 500 ml (for frying)

Sugar 3 cups

Water 300 ml

saffron/food colour

Cardamom Powder

Method:

1 Heat a large pan and add water and boil it now add now dissolve 3 cups of sugar.

2. Add saffron and stirr the syrup in low flame so that it gets reduced to one thread consistency. Add Saffron and cardamom powder. keep the syrup and cool it.

3. Soak Urad daal overnight . wash and drain it and grind it into a fine batter. Keep aside for minimum 3 hours.

4. Take a thick clothe and make a small hole in it (or a ketchup dispenser bottle which is easy to hold) . Pour the urad daal batter and hold it like a pouch.

5 Heat oil in a flat bottomed pan and now press the pouch(or a ketchup dispenser bottle) filled with batter over the oil and try to make the shape of imarti like make a ring first and then make small ringlets all along the ring.

6. Deep fry them until become crisp and turn once so that both side gets cooked well.

7. Drain out excess oil and deep into sugar syrup. Soak imarti in the syrup for about 5 minutes and then drain out and keep aside so that it dries out and become crispy and delicious .

8 Serve hot and crispy Imartis as desert.

Semai payasam (Vermicelli Kheer)

Payasam or Payesh is a well known dessert/sweet dish. It can be made for any occasion specially during festivals. Semai Payasam is made with Semolina Vermicelli, milk and dry fruits. It is extremely delicious and easy to cook and take less cooking time as compared to other versions of Kheer.

Ingredients:

250 gms vermicelli (broken)
2 litrs milk
1 cup sugar
40 gms Raisins
50 gms Cashew nut
1 tsp. Ghee
2 Bay leaves
4 cardamom (Coarsely grounded)

Method:

1. Soak raisins in water for at least 2 hours.

2. In a pan add ghee. Now add broken vermicelli and roast until it become golden in colour. Take it out and keep aside.

3. Take a large pan or handi and add milk and boil it. Reduce the flame and add bay leaves. Stir the milk for 8 to 10 minutes so that the volume get reduced to 1/3. Now add 1/2 cup of sugar. Stir well to mix the sugar uniformly.

4. Add roasted vermicelli, soaked raisins and cashew nut. Stir continuously for 6 to 8 minutes. Now turnoff the flame and pour it in a serving bowl. Sprinkle cardamom powder and stir it with a spoon .

Decorated with cashew halves and the payasam is ready to serve.

This post goes for the event "FIL- Milk" conducted by Sanghi of Sanghi's Food Delights

Sweet Mango chutney

Mangoes are my all time favourite fruit and is considered as 'King of Fruits' in Bengal. I am particularly fond of fresh ripe mangoes as well as sweet, tangy and spicy mango chutney. Chutney is a very common dish served before dessert in most Bengali occasions, mostly made out of mangoes during mango seasons. I love to eat it any time especially after having meals. Chutney is prepared from ripe mangoes either sweet or sour but I always prefer sour one which gives a tangy taste to the chutney. It can also be prepared from raw mangoes which is available most of the time.

Ingredients:
2 nos. Raw or ripe mangoes
3 tblsp. sugar (depending on the sweetness of mango you can change the amount of sugar added.)
1 tsp. Salt (or as per taste)
6 to 8 Red chilli s
2 tsp. Fennel seed (sauf)
1/2 tsp. methi seed
1 tsp. mustard seed
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp. red chilli powder
2 slitted green chili
1 tsp. oil

Method:
1 Wash mangoes and peel off the skin and cut them into long slices. If you want you can discard the seed.

2. Heat a pan and add 3 red chilis, 1 tsp. methi seed and 1 tsp. fennel seed (sauf). Roast them for a couple of minutes and then grind them in a grinder to make powder.

3. Heat oil in a pan and add 3 to 4 red chillis, fennel seeds and mustard seeds. When mustard starts spluttering add mango slices. Stirr for a minute and add turmeric powder and salt. Stirr again for a couple of minutes and add 2 cups of water. Cover it with a lid and let it cook for about 10to 15 minutes with occasional stirring.

4. When the mango slices gets softer, reduce the flame and add sugar. stirr again and try to mash some of slices to get a chutney of thick consistency. Cook for another 5 to 6 minutes until the chutney becomes thick.

5. Remove from fire and set aside to cool. When it become cool serve it in a bowl or pour it into a jar and refrigerate it. It can be stored for long time in refrigerator.

Vanilla custard

This one of the most favourite dessert of my kid. She loves it very much specially cherry spread on the top. It is different from other custard as I cut it into cube shape to make it look more delicious. The preparation is very easy and fast.

Ingredients:

 1/2 litres. Milk

 2 tbsp. Custard powder(vanilla flavoured)

 3 tbsp. Sugar

 Cherry (sliced lengthwise)

Method:

1. Pour milk in a pan, keep it in flame and let it boil. Reduce the flame and stirr for about 6 to 8 minute so as to reduce its volume. Add 3 tbsp of sugar and stir again. 

2.Take 1/4 cup of cold milk and add 2 heaped tbsp. of vanilla flavoured custard powder and mix thoroughly so that the powder gets diluted properly in the  milk.

3.  Now pour the custard powder and milk mixture slowly on the boiled milk with one hand and stir the milk with other hand  as it will avoid formation of lump. Stir continuously until the custard becomes thick. 

4. Reduce the flame and Pour the custard into and flat bottomed container (grease the container before pouring). Let it cool  in order to set the custard (You can keep it in refrigerator for an hour. Spread cherry pieces over it. Now cut it into cubes or different shape according to your kids choice.  

This  recipe goes for "Cooking For Kids (Milk/Milk products)" event going on Preety's blog. Wish you all the best for hosting such a cute event.

Gajar ka Halwa (Carrot Halwa)

INGREDIENTS:

500 gms Carrot(Gajar).

2 ltrs. milk.

100 gms Sugar.

2 bay leaves.

5 Cardamom (crushed to make powder)..

25 gms Cashew nut.

20 gms Raisins(Kishmish).

1 tablespoon Ghee.

METHOD:

1.Wash Carrot and grate it finely.

2. Heat a nonstick pan and pour 2 ltrs of milk in it. When the milk boils add bay leaves and grated carrot. Stir it continuously to prevent sticking to the pan.

3.When the milk Dries completely, add Sugar, Cardamom powder. Stir well in low flame until the mixture thickens. Add Ghee and fry until the ghee get separated.

4 Add Raisins and Cashew nut and mix well.Take out from fire and allow it to cool.

Decorate it with Raisins and Cashewnut.

This recipe goes for participation in " Recipes for the rest of us: Dessert" event and one page cookbooks