SANDESH

This is my first Blog Post! I hardly know anything about blogging, not a versatile cook either. I love cooking. My grand mom and mom had been good cooks in their respective times; specially in area of Bengali cooking, I have a natural inclination towards it. 

Today is Janmashtami,  Lord Krishna's birthday; an auspicious day for us. Today is the day Lord Krishna is royally treated with a variety of home made sweets.There is a celebration in our home too, in my small way. I was trying my hands on SANDESH, a Bengali sweet. It comes in a wide variety, this one we call "norom paker sandesh".... soft textured, the most basic one.

I chose a simple one. I prepared the paneer / desi cottage cheese on gas stove top, kneaded it to a smooth dough, cooked further, shaped once cool. You can garnish sandesh with pistachio, almond, raisin, cashew nut.... choose from a wide variety of dry fruits & nuts.

Ingredients (for the cheese) :

Milk: 2 litres

Vinegar: 2 tbsp

Ingredients (for Sandesh) :

Home made Cheese(Chena) : As we get from 2 lt of milk

Sugar.  : 5-6 tbsp(powdered)

Green Cardamom Powder : 1/2 tsp

Rice Flour : 1 tbsp

Pistachio : 25 gm (chopped)

PROCEDURE :

Pour milk in heavy bottomed pan. Bring to boil. Add 2-3 tbsp water to vinegar, pour in. 

Powder sugar and green cardamoms together.

With help of clean white cloth drain whey water. Hang chena / paneer cheese for about 45 minutes so that there is no water left. Take paneer cheese, sugar, milk powder, rice flour in bowl.

Keep kneading until all ingredients are nicely mixed, smooth dough is formed. Heat clean wok which you do not use for curries.

Add chena mixture, cook for 10-12 minutes stirring continuously. Add the rice flour, stir cook for 2-3 minutes!

Add 1/2 of chopped pistachios, stir cook for 1/2 a minute!

Prepare shapes of your choice. Garnish with pistachios.

You can decor with rose petals / silver foils too.