SANDESH

Honestly I do not know much about blogging, neither am I a versatile cook. I just love cooking. My grandmom and mom being very good cooks of their respective times; specially in Bengali cooking, I have a natural inclination towards it. 

Today is Janmashtami,  Lord Krishna's birthday; a very auspicious day for us. Today is the day Lord Krishna is royally treated with a variety of home made sweets.There is a celebration at 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 and the most basic one.

I had chosen the simplest one. I prepared the paneer / desi cottage cheese on gas stove top, kneaded it to a smooth dough, cooked further and shaped on cooling. You can garnish the 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
• Pistachio : 25 gm (chopped)

PROCEDURE :

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

Powder the sugar and green cardamoms together.

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

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

Add the chena mixture and cook for 5 minutes stirring continuously. Add 1/2 of the chopped pistachios and stir for 1/2 a minute!

Prepare shapes of your choice. Garnish with pistachios.

You can decor with rose petals/silver foils too.