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

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-...