How to Make Chenna - Chenna Recipe from Milk for Indian Sweets

Chenna is the base for many delicious and varies Bengali sweets like rasgulla, rasmalai, sandesh, etc. The process of making chenna is identical to making paneer at home, you just stop short of pressing the cheese with weights to make it firmer. Both TH and I love Bengali sweets since they are so heavily milk-based and this year, what with us being in a new country and all, I decided to make some quick and easy sweets for diwali that we both enjoy.

Choosing the right type of milk is very important for making chenna or paneer at home. If possible, find non-homogenised, full-cream cow's milk. If you have made paneer before and know that the milk you buy works, then go ahead since the process, as mentioned, is identical. However, chenna is best used as soon as it's made and converted into sweets rather than freezing, etc. This is because chenna has a much smoother texture which may get compromised if you freeze it for a long time and we need it to soak up other flavours when making sweets like rasgulla and sandesh.

{Check out my easy 10-min Rasmalai recipe}

So my word of advice? Plan how much chenna you need and make only the sufficient amount, quickly turning it into whatever you desire. It's hard to go wrong with your sweet recipe if you start with a delicious mound of fresh, homemade chenna! Check out a full list of Diwali Recipes here.

{Have some extra chenna in hand? Make this delicious Channar Payesh in 15 mins}

HOW TO MAKE CHENNA FROM MILK

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes 1 cup chenna

INGREDIENTS:
500 milk of full fat milk
3 tbsp of lime juice (see notes)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Bring the milk to a rolling boil and then lower flame to simmer.

2. Add 2 tbsp of the lime juice and stir gently.

You will find that the cheese starts separating from the whey. The whey needs to turn a clear, faint green. If it still seems milky, add some more lime juice. I needed the full 3 tbsp.

3. When the cheese has completely separated (should take about 2-3 mins on very low flame), turn off heat and pour into a colander lined with a cheese cloth or clean cotton cloth.

4. Gather the ends and squeeze tightly. Take care though, the chenna inside will be extremely hot. Run this under some cold water at the sink. This step is to remove the flavour the lime juice imparts to the cheese.

5. Tie the cloth ends to the tap and let the remaining whey and water drip off. I left it like this for about 30 mins.

6. Transfer the chenna into a wide bowl or plate and knead well with your fingertips.

The crumbliness will soon give way to a smooth consistency. The chenna won't be sticky at any point. Gather together into a ball and proceed to make whatever sweet you have in mind for this Diwali festival season.

NOTES:
- Ever since Anu gave me this tip, I had started using only buttermilk for separating milk to make paneer and chenna. I didn't have any in hand this time so used lime juice. If you use buttermilk, there's absolutely no other flavour in the chenna except the milkiness which would you expect. For 500 ml milk, I'd use about 1/4 to 1/3 cup buttermilk
- Use the chenna immediately in your sweets recipes. This channar payesh is a great way of using up fresh chenna.

For chenna recipe in Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, etc, please use the Google Translate button on the sidebar. 

Rava Puran Poli (Sojji Appam) - Diwali Sweets Recipes

I had never heard of Sojji Appam until amma made it and my uncle sent me pics, mentioning that this is the popular sojji from the famous phrase bajji sojji. It's very similar to puran poli except that you use rava or semolina in the puran filling instead of chana dal. So the name Rava Puran Poli seemed apt. Now, I am such a huge fan of Puran Poli (we call it obbattu) that I insisted it be a served as part of my wedding meal. So instead of the regular poli, we served obbattu with paal payasam. It was quite a hit and people still talk about it after 5 years!

If with the brinjal vindaloo amma gave me the recipe and waited for it to happen, the same mistake wasn't repeated with the rava puran poli. She just made it and got my uncle to click pics and send them across. I saved it up to share during diwali because that's where everyone is looking for quick and easy sweets recipes. Well, this is not necessarily a quick one but it's definitely tasty. Or so I'm told. I still haven't tasted this so, if you made it, do let me know. I am told it was a hit in my Kottayam household the day it got made for Edible Garden :)

{Check here if you are looking for more recipes for diwali} 

RAVA PURAN POLI (SOOJI APPAM)

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Makes ~ 20
Recipe source: Amma

INGREDIENTS:
2.5 cups of plain flour or maida
1 cup of semolina or rava
3/4 cup of crushed jaggery (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup of grated coconut
1 pinch of saffron powder (or saffron strands - see notes)
2 tbsp of finely chopped roasted cashewnuts (optional)
1 pinch of salt
2 tsp of butter
2 tbsp of ghee

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Sift the flour to remove any lumps. Add salt and saffron powder and mix well. Add enough water to make into a soft dough like for pooris. Set aside.

2. Melt the jaggery with 1/4 cup water. Pass through a sieve to remove any impurities and set aside.

3. Add the rava to a dry frying pan and roast until it starts to turn a darker shade of brown/red. To this, add the melted jaggery, coconut, and cashew nuts (if using). Mix well and keep stirring on low heat until the mixture starts to leave the pan and forms into a ball.

4. Knead the dough again lightly and form into lime-sized balls. Form the rava mixture into similar sized balls too.

5. Roll out the dough into circles and place the rava balls inside. Bring the ends together and form into one larger ball as shown below. Make sure the ends are brought together properly so that the filling doesn't come out when rolling.

6. Roll these filled dough balls gently into a circle. Heat a griddle or pan and brush with ghee generously.

7. Add the rolled puran poli on the heated griddle and cook both sides until they are flecked with golden brown patches.

These puris taste great warm or at room temperature and keep well for 2 days. If you plan to store them longer, refrigerate after cooling them completely immediately after cooking. They may keep a day or two longer that way but since there's coconut involved, plan to finish them off quicker.

Note: if you want to use saffron strands instead of saffron powder, dissolve the strands in 1 tbsp warm water and set aside for 10 mins before adding to the flour and kneading the dough.

I hope you make these rava puran polis for Diwali this year. I am not sure if I have time to share a lot of Diwali sweets and snacks this year since we just moved into our place and there's a lot of stuff to get done (like buying a bed!).

Enjoy! :)

For Rava Puran Poli recipe in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, etc, please use the translate bar on the right sidebar of the site. 

Garlicky Mushroom Pakora

Ingredients:

• Gram flour : 6 tbsp
• Salt :1 tsp
• Chilli powder : half tsp
• Turmeric powder : half tsp
• Crushed Red Chilli : 1 tsp
• Carom seeds :1 tsp
• Dried Methi Leaves : 1 tbsp
• Cumin Seeds : 1 tsp
• Garlic Cloves : 3
• Plain Yoghurt: 1 tbsp
• Green Chilli : 1 small
• Mushroom : 6 large

Directions:

Wash and cut each mushroom length-wise in two pieces.
Crush green chilli with garlic cloves. Mix them with all the ingredients mentioned above in a bowl.
Mix some water while stirring to form a paste.
The paste should neither be too runny nor too thick.
Then coat each piece of mushroom with the paste and deep fry them.
When they become golden brown, take them out on an oil absorbing paper.
Serve them hot with mint chutney or tamarind sauce.

   

Spinach Kootu Recipe - South Indian Kootu Recipe with Spinach

Spinach (keerai in Tamil, cheera in Malayalam, palak in Hindi) is one of those vegetables that I ate while growing up only because my grand mom told me repeatedly that it would aid growing hair. So I ate spinach in all forms - cheera thoran, palak dal, palak pulao, even keerai masiyal - and I guess I did have thick hair as a child but it was always chopped off when it reached shoulder length anyway. When I fought with my mom over this, she switched the story over and said spinach is actually good for your eyes too. Well, ok. My eyes stay with me forever so that seemed like a good enough reason.

This was back when I was too young to realise how special a home-grown, organic bunch of spinach actually is. My grand mom would spend hours squatting near them as they grew, often plucking out worms and caterpillars by hand. She was quite an edible gardener, my grand mom. Of all the vegetables we grew on our terrace, spinach was the most successful and most loved by her. She would make a Reddiar-style masiyal (we call it sithondu kooraku) with them which looked like ground henna leaves but was out of this world in its simplicity and flavour.

{My favourite? It's this chow chow kootu that's wonderfully flavourful}

I don't remember eating a lot of Spinach Kootu as a child but this one is a favourite now and I serve it with both rasam and rice and also chapatis. For pairing with kootu, pick a rasam without dal, like this tomato rasam or this pepper rasam.

SPINACH KOOTU RECIPE

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup of moong dal (cherupayar, paasi paruppu)
3 cups of packed, chopped spinach leaves
1 tomato (optional)
1/3 cup of grated coconut
1 tsp of cumin seeds (jeera, jeerakam)
2 shallots
1/2 tsp of minced garlic
1/2 tsp of red chilli powder
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
2 tsp of oil
1 tsp of mustard seeds

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Wash the dal and add to a large cooking pot along with the spinach, chopped tomato (if using), turmeric, and 2 cups of water.

2. Simmer until the ingredients are cooked and soft. This takes about 10-12 mins on low flame. If not done, cook longer and add more water if required.

3. Meanwhile, grind together coconut + shallots + garlic + red chilli powder + cumin seeds with some water to a smooth paste.

4. Add this to the cooked dal mixture along with 1 cup water. Note that if the cooked dal is watery, you can skip adding more.

5. Simmer for another 5-8 mins. Add salt.

6. Heat the oil in a small pan and add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add to the cooked kootu. Mix well.

Serve spinach kootu hot with rasam and rice or chapati / roti. You can make this kootu with chana dal (kadala paruppu) too.