Chana'r Jilipi - a Bengali dessert

Another lovely sweetly festival (Bengali New Year) is just round the corner. And you know, the celebration is not afar. The actual celebration will start from 14^th April. I prefer to celebrate such moments with something that is made at home.

When I make food that helps me recall by-gone-days, even build some memories. Today’s takeaway generation has lost much of that.  It doesn't really leave much room for remembrance, do they? I try to collect the recipes from old cookbooks, Ma’s diary, faded handwritten notes scribbled by grandma – perhaps now ready to slip away. That is how some of the nostalgia survives.

Today’s Chana’r Jilipi Recipe I am sharing with you, was made by Grand Ma. 

Ingredients for making Chana'r Jilipi: (for 10-12 pieces)

For Jilipi:
Homemade Cottage Cheese / Casein (fresh made): 1 cup
Khoya Kheer / Mewa: 1 cup
Suji / Semolina: 2 tbsp
Refined Flour: 2 1/2 tbsp 
Baking Powder: a pinch
Melted Butter to mix Refined Flour
Green Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp 
White Oil for frying

For Syrup: 
Water - 3 cup 
Sugar - 6 cup 
Green Cardamom - 5-6

Method for making Chana'r Jilipi: 

1. Soak Semolina in 4 tbsp of warm water for 15 minutes.
2. Take Casein, Mewa in a mixing bowl. 
3. Melt Butter in a pan. Add Refined Flour. Mix well. Add this to Casein Mix.
4. Add soaked Semolina to Casein Mix. Add Cardamom Powder. 
5. Knead well. Make a smooth dough. 
6. Divide the dough in small equal size balls. Roll each balls in long strips. Give them coil shape like Jilipi. Leave them aside for 5-7 minutes. 
7. Meanwhile you can make Sugar Syrup. Take all ingredients (except green cardamom) in a deep-bottom aluminium pan. Wait till Sugar dissolves in the water. Add Green Cardamom. Stir well. Boil the Syrup till it gets 1-string* consistency. 

[1 String consistency* : Place one drop of syrup in between your thumb and forefinger. To taste the consistency you have to pull apart them gently. If only one thin thread is formed, it indicates that you have got 1-String consistency.]

7. Heat oil in a frying Pan. Fry those coil shaped Jilipi in medium hot oil until they become dark brown, but not too dark. 
8. Dip them into Sugar Syrup. Keep them in the Syrup for at least 3-4 hours. It will soak the syrup. 

Rabdi Sandesh

Ingredients to make Rabdi Sandesh:

1 cup Chhana (Homemade cottage cheese)

6 cups full cream milk

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. sugar

2-3 pods of green cardamom

1/2 tsp. ghee for greasing

Few Cardamom for garnishing

Process to make Rabdi Sandesh:

1. For making homemade cottage cheese or chhana take 5 cups of milk in a heavy bottom pan. Bring it to a boil on high heat. When the milk starts boiling reduce the heat and add vinegar or lime juice to it. As soon as the milk curdles turn off the heat and stir it well.

2. Line a strainer with cheese cloth and pour the curdled milk over it. Wash chhana with running cold water to wash off any residual acidity. Bring the sides of the cheese cloth together and squeeze it to drain the excess water. Don’t drain it too hard.

3. Take chhana in a flat tray and knead it with the heel of your palm. Add 2 tbsp. of sugar and crushed cardamom seeds. The chhana mixture should be moist. If you feel its not moist enough add few drops of milk to it.

4. Grease a steel Tiffin box with ghee and spread the chhana evenly. Pour half cup water in the cooker and carefully place the closed tiffin box inside it. The water level should cover 1/3 of the height of the tiffin box. Cook it on medium heat without the pressure-weight for 15 minutes.

5. Allow the tiffin box to cool down completely. Remove the cover and place a plate upside down on top of the open tiffin box. Turn it over. Now your Sandesh is ready. Cut it into squares.

6. In a heavy bottom pan take milk and cook it on medium heat till the color changes to one shade darker of its original one. Don’t forget to stir it continuously. By this time it will be reduced to its half. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and freshly crushed cardamom seeds. Stir well.

Add steamed chhana cubes and turn off the heat. Let it stand for couple of hours before you serve.

Oreo Chocolate Truffle

Ingredients to make Oreo Chocolate Truffle

Oreo Biscuits – 1 packet (grind it in mixer grinder)
Cream Cheese - 2-3 tbsp
Dark Chocolate – 50 grams
White Chocolate- ½ bar

Process to make Oreo Chocolate Truffle

1. In a mixing bowl combine ground Oreo biscuits with cream cheese. Make a stiff dough & pinch out equal lemon size balls.
2. Arrange in a tray & refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Melt dark chocolate in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute. Give a nice stir.
4. Dip the Oreo balls in this melted chocolate mixture & refrigerate the balls for 1-2 hours.
5. Melt white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Give a nice stir. 6. Drizzle each truffle with lines of white chocolate.

Serve chilled !!

Tempting Ras Bara - You can't take off your eyes!

Ingredients to make Ras Bara: 

A. For Bara

Urad Dal - 1 cup (for 15 pieces)
Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp
Salt
Oil to fry

B. For Syrup

Water - 3 cups
Sugar - 2 cup
Juggary - 1 cup or less as per your taste (I used date palm juggary)

Process to make Ras Bara:

1. Soak the Urad Daal in water overnight (or 7-8 hours).
2. After 7-8 hours wash the soaked daal under running water. You need to wash it until you find water runs clear.
3. Pour it in a mixer grinder bowl and add little water. Make the paste with it.
4. Pour the paste in a bowl. Add little salt and fennel seeds.
5. Now beat the paste very well. If you don’t beat well, the dumpling would be hard. And It would not be able to soak the sugar syrup.

[To know if beating is fine or not, place a drop of paste to a glass of normal water. If the drop floats, you don't need to beat any more. But if it sinks down, it indicates that further beating is required.]

6. Heat enough oil in a deep bottom frying pan. If oil gets hot, reduce the flame. Place one drop of paste to the hot oil to check whether the oil is ready for frying or not.
7. Now place a spoonful of paste to the oil. It would look life dumpling in hot oil. You can place 7-8 dumplings at a time. Fry them till light brown colour.
8. Take out the dumplings from the oil and keep them aside in a bowl. Ideally you should keep those dumplings on a napkin lined plate, so it can absorb the extra oil.

Making Sugar Syrup for Ras Bara

1. Heat water in a pan.
2. Once it starts boiling add sugar. keep stirring. It would help sugar dissolve fast.
3. Add juggary and mix well. Stirring is required again. Once the juggary mix well with water, turn off the flame.
5. Place the fried dumpling to the syrup one by one. Let it be there for 1-2 hours. Dumpling would float in the syrup.
6. Serve  hot or cold as per your choice. 

Mango Lassyi

 Ingredients:

2 cup of ripe mangoes (peeled and chopped)

1 cup of white yogurt

½ cup of milk

4 tbsp of sugar (you can add more sugar as per your taste

4 pieces of cardamom

2 mint leaves for 2 glasses (just for garnishing)

Ice cubes as per your need

Method:

1. You are ready with chopped mangoes, right?

2. Now take mango pieces, yogurt, milk and sugar in a blender pot and blend them until they mix well.

In this stage you can add more sugar according to your taste. If the mango is sweet, you may not need to use more sugar. So adding more sugar totally depends upon sweetness of the mango and how much sweetness you want.

3. Dry-roast cardamoms and remove from the heat. Now grind them to make smooth powder.

4. Add ice and cardamom powder to the blended mango-yogurt. Mix it well with a spoon and blend.

5. Add cold water to the mix. Quantity of water should depend on the consistency of the lassy you want. For slush-like lassy you don’t need to add much water.

6. Lassy is ready. Pour it in tall crystal glasses. Put one mint leaf on the top in each glass. 

Balushahi

Ingredients:

2 cups of all purpose flour (Maida)

1.5 tbsp of ghee

1.5 tbsp salt

Pinch of baking soda

1.5 cup of water to make dough and sugar syrup

2 cups of sugar for making sugar syrup and coating

Oil to fry

Method:

1. Take flour, baking soda, salt and ghee in a bowl. Mix them well to make soft dough. Add water while making the dough. Keep it aside for 1 hour at least.
2. After 1 hour make 7/8 round balls with this dough. Put any of your fingers to make a dent inside the each ball.
3. Heat oil in deep bottom pan and deep fry both the sides of each ball. Flip them carefully while frying. You can fry 3-4 balls at a time. Remove all fried balls from oil and keep aside.
4. Now make sugar syrup. Take 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water in a deep bottomed aluminum pot. Boil them till you find the sugar got dissolves in the water. It would take approximately 10 minutes. Keep all deep fried balls in the sugar syrup for 10/15 minutes. After that keep those balls (balushahi) aside. Your balushahi is made now.
5. If you want to make them sugar coated, you need to reserve the sugar syrup.
6. Take 3-4 tsbp. of sugar syrup in a pan and add 1 tbsp sugar to it. Boil and stir frequently till syrup thickens. Otherwise you can put your 2-3 fingers in hot syrup to check the thickness of the syrup. You will find a string appeared between your fingers.
7. Put balushahis in this sugar syrup one by one and gently stir for 10 minutes. Keep all balushahis aside over night or at least 6-7 hours. Next morning you will find bring sugar coating appeared on balushahis.

Tips and tricks for Gulab Jamun

Tips for making Gulab Jamun:

• Always place Gulab Jamun in hot syrup for 20 minutes before serving.
• Don’t fry Gulab Jamun balls in high heat, otherwise them will become hard inside.
• Using too much baking soda is not a good idea. Gulab jamun may break apart while you are frying.
• Gulab Jamun should not be placed in the syrup right after frying. Because it will become stringy and will lose its actual shape.

Tricks to change Gulab Jamun into different dessert :

• When your Gulab Jamun is made, cut them into two pieces. Garnish with sliced almonds and pistachios.      

Gulab Jamun

Ingredients:

Non fat milk powder (I used Nestle milk powder) – 1 cup

All purpose flour (Maida) – ¼ cup

Butter (I used Amul butter) – 3 tbsp

Milk – ¼ cup

Baking Soda – a pinch

Sugar – 2 cups

Water 1.5 cups

Cardamom Seeds – 5/6 pcs

Refined oil for deep fry the balls

Method:

1. Grind cardamom seeds.
2. Take water in large pan and add sugar and cardamom.
3. Now bring it to boil.
4. After few minutes, remove the pan from the flame.
5. Now keep stirring the syrup until the sugar gets dissolved into the water.
6. Keep it aside.
7. Now get prepared for making balls for Gulab Jamun.
8. Take flour, milk powder and baking soda in bowl. Add butter to it and mix well.
9. After that add milk and make soft but sticky dough. Keep it aside so that milk powder can absorb extra milk.
10. If you find, dough is dry, don’t add water. In that case you need to add more milk to make it soft.
11. Now grease both of your hand palms to knead the dough. Divide the dough into few equal portions. And roll them into small round balls. About 20 balls you can make.
12. Heat the oil in a deep bottom pan. Keep the flame in medium heat. Place 3 or 4 balls one time in the oil. Now fry them till they get evenly dark brown in color.
13. Keep them aside once they are fried. Let them cool down.
14. Repeat this process for frying other balls.
15. Now place them in the hot syrup. And let them be there for at least 45 minutes.