Chenna Poda: Cottage Cheese Cake

this recipe is inspired by Niranjan. a couple of weeks back he spoke so much about this dish that i got tempted too. and then as luck would have it, i chanced upon the recipe and picture while surfing and i was then determined to try it. yesterday Niranjan and Abhijeet had come over and i thought it was the perfect time to give it a try. and we did and the result was absolutely delicious! i could not believe one could make a cake out of chenna (fresh paneer/cottage cheese) and that it could taste so good. this is one of the finest sweet dishes that i have come across lately. how come i had never heard of it before? this dish is from orissa and a hot favourite of Jagannath Puri. and so healthy as compared to many of the other white flour based or fried desserts.

ingredients: fresh chenna made from 3 litres of cow's milk (use vinegar to curdle the milk), 3/4the tsp baking powder, 25gms sooji (semolina), 125 gms sugar, 1/2 tsp chhoti elaichi powder (cardamom).

method: mix all ingredients together and mash well with hands till the mixture is absolutely smooth. take a baking dish and rub some cow ghee on it. line it with a butter paper or better with the dry pattal leaves(the leaves in which we are served chaats or food at temple). now transfer the entire chenna mixture in the bowl and bake it on 200 degrees celsius for exactly an hour. insert a toothpick to check if it is done. if the toothpick comes out clean it is ready. if not then bake some more. now turn it over in a plate and let it cool completely before slicing (well we could not! we ate it while it was still warm) the texture is unbelievably very much like a cake.

if you would like it to be brown from outside like a proper cake, caramelize a little sugar in the baking dish before pouring in the mixture. if you like you can also add some raisins and cashews to the mixture.

go ahead try it and enjoy a yummy dessert. btw i forgot to take the picture so i have picked this one from the net. Shivi wanted me to post this right away so... :D

Paneer & Cheese Roll

this one is for you Anu! a quick snack for the kids. Nakshat loves it and i hope Ruben should like it too. it can be eaten by itself with his favourite dip or can be used as a filling for sandwich or roll. i generally roll it in a parantha with some onion and coriander chutney for his tiffin and it never comes back!

all you need to do is bind together: grated paneer(cottage cheese), grated cheese(the more the yummier but less than the quantity of paneer you take), fresh green coriander, salt, fresh bread slices crumbled after soaking in water or bread crumbs, a little rawa depending on the overall quantity of mixture (roughly 1 tsp for 200gms of paneer)

mix well, form desired shape and deep fry. you could even do all the preparation the night before and keep rolls in fridge to fry them fresh early in the morning.

Raw Mango & Coconut Chutney, Stuufed Chillies & Beetroot Bhujji

Nived picked up raw mango this time during his veggie shopping trip. they had been lying in my fridge for last one week. today i had some free time and i spotted them in the corner of my vegetable basket. in an instant i decided to experiment with them. and today being saturday i will have audience too to suffer my experiments :-)

i asked my maid to grate them thick. then i moved around the kitchen to see what else was there. i discovered some grams, green peppers, boiled potatoes, beetroots and coconut amongst other things. these are what caught my attention and the meal was planned. i asked my maid to grate the beetroots and coconut too. she gave me a wry smile and asked how come i did not have any other work today:P everyday i am so busy there is hardly any time to even enter the kitchen and she is the queen. i think she was feeling threatened with my presence!

anyways, i roasted the grams with some methi seeds and jeera and ground them fine into powder. then i took grated raw mango, grated fresh coconut, one pepper, little jaggery, salt and a tb sp of this fresh powder and churned it in the mixie. then added the tadka made with oil, heeng, mustard and kalunji seeds. the result tastes really good to me, don't know what will be the reaction of others.

so this was the raw mango and coconut chutney.

btw i have also made stuffed green chillies (filled with a mixture of boiled potatoes, grated raw mango, gram powder and salt and then braised in mustard oil) and dry beetroot bhujji (heat oil, add heeng, mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and grated beetroot. cover and let it cook. when it is done, add salt and gram powder and grated fresh coconut. mix well and serve hot with plain rice and curds.

30 minutes later: just finished the meal and trust me it was YUMMY! so different from the regular course. had all 3 of these with hot chapatis, rice and curd. you must try. and beetroot is generally not eaten so frequently. this is a simple and absolutely delicious recipe. hot rice, curd and this beetroot bhujji was absolutely heavenly. happy cooking!

Mishti Doi of Kolkata

oh Calcutta!! i miss it SO much. it was the first time i was at Calcutta last december and i just fell in love with the city. of course the major attraction was definitely the food, specially the variety of sweets & puchkas...yum yum yum, but also the simplicity and a general feel of that city hit me. when i came back to pune, it was the first time that i was not happy coming back home. i wanted to go back. just waiting for my next trip there.
i ate many sweets and puchkas in Calcutta and after coming back had been craving madly for them. what to do? best option was to try them at home and i did. first i attacked the puchkas. though i have been making golgappas at home regularly but Calcutta puchka took my breath away; literally :D and i have quite perfected the recipe thanks to Shivi. will share the recipe soon once i take some nice pictures. every time i make them i cannot think of anything else before i finish the last bit and so have missed taking pictures. in Calcutta too i missed taking pictures while enjoying some of those heavenly puchkas and mishti doi and rosogullas and sandesh and...who could think of pictures in those delicious moments! (some of the pictures shared here are picked up from the net)
yesterday i tried mishti doi and it came out perfect! i even called Shivi to taste and approve and she did (yippee!) here is the recipe if you want to try out. it is super simple.
ingredients: a litre of fresh full cream buffalo milk, 8 tbsps of sugar/patali gur if you can manage, 2 tsp of curd(should not be sour). preparation: boil milk, add half the sugar and let it simmer on slow gas till it becomes half. meanwhile add a tbsp of water to rest of sugar and mix in a thick bottomed pan on slow fire till it become brown. be careful that it does not burn. add this to the milk and allow it to cool. the colour of milk will change to light brown. once it reaches luke warm stage, add the curd, mix well, pour in a matki if you have and let it set. can take 5-7 hrs depending on weather. once set keep it in the fridge for another 5-7 hrs. serve chilled. tastes absolutely heavenly. slurp slurp slurp.

Coconut Cheese Cake

i have been craving for coconut cheese cake ever since i had it first time last year at one of the avyudaya workshops. though i have been able to appease my craving to some extent with coconut icecream at Naturals, the desire to eat that same cheese cake did not leave me. yesterday i was reading a recipe for mango cheesecake by Tarla Dalal (click on the title to get there) and it struck me what if I would replace mango with coconut! i could not wait and immediately called up Nived to get me tender coconut cream. followed the recipe of mango cheese cake by replacing mango with tender coconut cream. the result was not bad at all for the taste buds though my body has been screaming to stop loading it with so many calories ;-)

Tender coconut cream pictures (last 2) courtesy: rawupnorth.blogspot.com/2007/12/making-young-...

Spring Onion Bhujji

if you like green onions and are looking for a variation, must try this one. at our place green onion is a regular vegetable and i was bored with the regular potato-green onion bhaji. yesterday i was surfing on the net and found this recipe, of course i made some changes to it. tried this morning and it came out really well. sorry i could not take the picture :-( it was breakfast time and we were all in a hurry, it was finished before i thought of my camera.

ingredients:
1 bunch of fresh spring onions. wash well and chop into 1 cm bits. mustard oil/vegetable oil 1 tbsp, methi / fenugreek seeds, 1 green chillie whole, 2 pinches hing / asafetoeda, 3 tbsp. besan atta / bengal gram flour, salt, turmeric powder/haldi 1/4 tsp, marble size piece of gur/ jaggery or 1 tsp sugar

heat the oil in a kadhai. add the methi seeds and green chillie and saute for a few seconds till the seeds splutter. add the spring onions, turmeric powder, the salt and gur and stir well before covering tightly and cooking on a low fire till done. now add the besan sprinkling it over the greens a spoon at a time taking care to see that they do not form lumps . Stir well and add more besan till the greens are lightly coated with the gram flour. cover and cook till the gram flour smells done, not raw. this takes about 4-5 minutes when stirred well from time to time. do not let it stick to the pan. serve hot with chapathi or rice. it tastes very nice.

Chilly Paneer

this one is for you Himanshu! one day Himanshu dropped in for some work and it was our dinner time and i was in no mood to cook. he offered to cook and i immediately agreed :-) with Nakshat's assistance, he managed to make chilly paneer which was absolutely superb. Nakshat has been demanding that chilly paneer very often since then and i too have learned to make it well. it is very simple and quick to make and tastes delicious. if you love chinese food then you must try this one. ingredients: 250 gms paneer sliced in 1 inch long pieces, 1 medium onion chopped, 1 tbsp(kadachi) of soy sauce, tomato sauce & olive oil, 1 tsp of green chilli sauce, 6-8 pressed garlic cloves, 2 tsp of chopped ginger, 1/2 cup of chopped spring onion leaves and salt to taste. preparation: heat olive oil in a wok, add garlic cloves, after 5 sec add chopped onion and fry till pink. should not take more than a minute. add ginger and all the sauces, fry for 10 secs and add paneer. mix well and allow it to be full gas for another minute. switch off gas, garnish with spring onion leaves and serve hot. don't forget to check for salt, whether you will need to add salt will depend on the soy sauce you use. some are very salty where are some are not. also depending on your taste buds you could plus/minus quantity of sauces.

takes hardly 3-4 minutes to cook and serves as a yummy side dish or even a starter. in fact you could add a little cornflour mixed with water to make it a gravy and it will become your main dish too.

by the way, you can replace paneer with tofu/mushrooms/baby potatoes/corn/soya nuggets/fries okra....tastes equally exciting.

Pasta in Tomato Sauce

This one is another quickie that you can do in minutes. The ingredients that you need: a cup of boiled pasta, two large tomatoes pureed, bay leaf, half a cup of nicely chopped onion, salt and red chilli powder to taste and ofcourse olive oil. Just heat a tbsp of oil in a pan, add bay leaf and onion and fry till brown. Pour in the tomato puree, add salt and chilli powder and simmer till it looks completely cooked. If you like you can even add some oregano. Now add the boiled pasta, a little water and cook on low gas for another 2-3 minutes. Your basic tomato pasta is ready. Ofcourse you can always get more creative and add different things like cottage cheese, paneer, mushrooms, peas...