Since its the end of Durga Pujo and my first post in this awesome group, thought of sharing something sweet and wishing Shubho Bijoya to all of you.
The inspiration or rather the push to make this one came from my recollections of having this sweet at Brijwasi in Bombay . It was an absolute fav with all in the family and since I could not go to Brijwasi, made an attempt to get Brijwasi home Without much ado , here goes the recipe.
Ingredients
- Milk : 1 litre ( used low fat milk )
- Citric acid crystals : 1/2 tsp
- Sugar : 2 cups
- Water : 3 cups
- Mawa : 100 gms
- Yellow Food colour - 2 drops ( used the Sprig Organic Colour )
Method
- Dissolve the citric acid crystals in water and keep aside.
- Bring the milk to boil and reduce the flame . Gradually add the citric acid solution to the milk till the milk curdles and you get a greenish whey. Don't add the solution all at once. Once the milk has curdled switch off the flame and add 1 cup of cold water and keep covered for 15 mins.
- Pour the curdled milk into a muslin cloth and rinse it well under running water. Squeeze out the extra water and keep the chenna under a heavy weight for about 10-15 minutes to drain out the remaining whey.
- Place the chenna on the working surface and knead well with the heel of your hand till you get an absolutely smooth , soft and creamy mass.
- Divide this portion into about 12 -15 portions ( depending on the size you want ).
- Make the desired shape ( I made oval ones ).
- In the pressure cooker add 1 cup of sugar and 3 cups of water and bring it to a boiling high heat till all the sugar has dissolved well.
- Place the oblong chenna shapes in the syrup very carefully .
- Close cooker and let it whistle once on medium flame, then reduce flame and cook it for 7 minutes.
- Switch off the flame and let the pressure release on its own. Let the pressure cooker cool on its own.
- The chenna squares would have doubled up by now.
- Very carefully remove the chenna squares from the syrup and place it in a bowl of plain water.
- Add the remaining 1 cup of sugar in the syrup and bring it to a boil. Let this syrup cool for 30 minutes.
- Now add the chenna squares to the sugar syrup and keep it for at least 30 minutes. I cooled it and kept it in the fridge for about 2 hours.
- In the meantime knead mawa along with a bit of the sugar syrup and a drop of yellow colour into a smooth paste. Knead well.
- When its time to assemble, take out the chenna squares and squeeze very gently to take out the excess syrup.
- Cut each chenna square horizontally , very carefully !
- Apply generous amount of the mawa paste on one halt of the square and place the other half on top of it ... basically sandwich it up and cut it into two.
- Decorate the way you want it... I used saffron strands and crushed pistachios.
Note:
- I have used low fat milk, one can use any kind of milk .
- Dont make the mawa paste too sweet as it will make the sandwich extremely sweet ( personally prefer sweets that are mildly sweet ) .. So be careful on that.
- Cut the sqaures extremely carefully as they are quite fragile... When I was splitting them up, I was imagining that I was torting a cake
- Here's to sweet beginnings !
- Recipe credit : Ashwini Patil .
- PS : Will be pasting the recipe in comments too as per the Group rules as soon as the post is approved.
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