# Tasty Recipes

Tuesday, January 12

Chena Poda / Chenna Poda

Chena Poda is a very famous and delicious dessert from Orissa. I might have had it earlier , but the one I remember was having it at my DSIL home. She had prepared it while we visited them for holidays. I was overwhelmed by all her preparation and she told me it was actually very simple to make. Like even my BIL can make 😜 My hubby who is born and brought up in Orissa, relished his childhood memories while having it, so I did had to try it. And this is actully simple and easy recipe. Chenna poda is a delicious dessert popular in Odisha. Its made with chenna or fresh paneer. The entire dish is baked and can also be called paneer cake or roasted cheese.

Ingredients:

For Chena poda

Milk 2 litre or 250 grams Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese)

Juice of 2 lemons

1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons Sugar 1

1/2 tablespoons Ghee

4 tbsp milk or whey water

2 tbsp Sooji (Semolina/ Rava)

1/2 tsp Cardamom Powder (Elaichi)

Cashew nuts choppen in big pieces

Raisins 2 tbsp

For caramelizing

Ghee 1tsp

Sugar 2-3 tsp

Method:

1. Make Fresh Paneer. You can refer to recipe here.

Add the milk in a pan and bring it to a boil. Lower the flame and add lemon juice. the milk will begin to curdle. Add more juice if it doesnt curdles completely. Switch off the flame and drain the paneer with a muslin cloth. Wash it with water to remove any sour taste of lemon.

2. Take the fresh paneer or store brought one and crumble it well. Mash it well.

3. Add sugar and Semolina and mix it all well.

4. Mash it with a spoon or with hands till all the sugar dissolves and it is like a smooth dough consistency.

5. Slowly add the whey water or milk to make the cake battery consistency batter.

6. Add chopped cashews, raisins and cardamon powder.

Preparing the Pan:

Apply ghee at the base of the 6 inch pan. Add about 2-3 tsp of sugar and put the outside of the pan over direct flame. Keep rotating the pan over the heat , so as sugar starts melting and gets caramelized. Keep rotating the pan so as a thin layer of caramelized sugar is formed in the pan. Pan is ready.

Preheat the oven to 190 F . Add the prepared batter in the pan, tap it twice and bake the cottage cheeses cake for about 25-30 minutes, till the toothpick comes out clean and a light brown layer is formed at the top.

Once cooled, cut the cake into cubes and take it out of the baking pan

Tips:

1. Preparing the pan is not so easy and can be skipped, till we get an hand of it. Chena poda tastes equivalent good without it too.

Monday, September 7

Instant Mathura Peda or Milk peda

From last year. I started bringing Ganpati to our home. Its such a joy to welcome Bappa into our home, our lives and celebrate those days with him. Also its a wonderful opportunity to treat Bappa with all the sweet goodies which he loves ( we love :P)

I was looking for some easy and quick recipes, so as I can made them fresh for daily bhog. And then though of making this instant peda. Its just 3 simple ingredient and a 15 minute recipe.

Traditionally Peda is made by slowly simmering milk till it thickens and khoya is formed. And then its used to make peda. But it takes long and now with a buys lifestyle we don't have so much time or patience. So here comes a fast, easy and perfect recipe for making pedas

Ingredients:

Khoya- 200 gms

Condensed milk -1/2 tin - 200 gms

Cardamon powder - 1/2 tsp

Chopped pistachios 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Defrost the khoya and let it come to room temperature, either by just letting it out for dew hours or can you microwave. Crumble it nicely or you can also chose to grate it for uniformity.

2. Add khoya in a pan. Just let it warm and then add milkmaid.

3. Cook in a slow flame stirring continuously . It will become sticky initially and then slowly start to thicken up

4. Once it starts leaving the side of pan( 7-10 minutes) , and becomes like a soft dough, add cardamon and take it out of the heat. Let it cool a bit

5. While its still warm grease your hands with ghee, make small balls and shape them as pedas (with a small dent in center )

6. Add chopped pistachios in center, pinch them in.

Tips:

1. Make sure to take dough out when still soft, it will harden a bit once its starts to cool.

2. Variations for chocolate peda : just sieve a bit of cocoa powder before making balls and mix well.

3. We can make this instant peda with milk powder and sugar as well. I will post the recipe soon

Sunday, August 30

Sabji Kachori or Club Kachori, a street food

Posting a recipe which is a real relish in my house. Serves as a filling breakfast, or a Sunday brunch. Actually, it can be enjoyed anytime of the day. Call it a Sabji kachori, Club kachori or Puri kachori. It’s an extremely popular street food in Kolkata.

I had it first at my Masi's place in Kolkata, and then and there got its recipe from my dear SIL. Since then it is our favourite Sunday breakfast. Sabji Kachori are small pooris prepared from a club of ingredients served along a simple and fast to cook potato curry. Fried foods appear very rarely at my home but when they are, we relish them to the fullest extent. YUM!!

Ingredients:

Kachori

Sooji or Semoli - 1 cup
Urad dal flour 1 cup
Oil -1 tbsp
Kala Jeera 1tsp
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Potato curry

3-4 potatoes (medium sized) boiled
Panch Phoran Masala - Nigella (⅛ tsp) + Fenugreek Seeds (¼ tsp) + Mustard seeds (¼ tsp) + Cumin seeds (¼ tsp) + Fennel (¼ tsp)
Dry fenugreek / methi leaves - 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder - ¼ tsp
Red Chilli powder - ½ tsp
Coriander powder 2 tsp
Mango Powder - ¼ tsp
Garam Masala - ¼ tsp
Salt to taste

Method:

Add the ingredients for Kachori in a bowl. Add water and make firm dough.
Do take note that the dough gets a bit sticky, so grease your palm with some oil as required.
Set aside the dough for 20 minutes

Potato curry:

1. Meanwhile chop the boiled potatoes into medium sized cubes. Also take about 1/4 potato and mash it finely.
2. Mix all the spices with about 2 tbsp of water and set aside.
3. Add oil in a pan, once hot add panch poran. Once it splutters add the spice mix and then add washed fenugreek leaves, let it cook for 1-2 minutes till aroma comes.
4. Add chopped potatoes, mix well. Cook
5. Add water, salt to taste and cook until water boils
6. Lastly add garam masala and the mashed potato.

Frying pooris:

1. Knead the dough once and then make small pedas( balls) out of it
2. Grease your hand and chakla with some oil and make small pooris about 1.5 inch in diameter and thick (about 1 mm) as in parathas.
3. Deep fry in hot oil (as we do for pooris) untill golden brown on both sides.
4. Serve with hot potato curry.

Tips:

1. Mashing the potatoes and adding it , gives it nice thick gravy texture
2. In case Urad flour is not available, you can soak dal for an hour, drain, grind and use as well.
3. Adding a bit of green chill and ginger in the dough can enhance the taste of pooris
4. Wheat flour can be used instead of refined flour
5. Press the pori with ladle if it floats on top, to puff it. And just try to turn only once. Turing again and again makes it absorb more oil.

Sunday, May 31

Yogurt cake with Crumb topping

Staying at home during this COVID outbreak has aggravated everyone's itch for cooking and baking is top in the list of all the wonderful new chefs.

With no need to commute to and fro from office and no where else to go after my wfh has given me too a lot of time in hand. So I thought of trying new recipes. But to tell you the real reason, it was my 2 brats who are always looking around in kitchen for food. Their number of trips to kitchen, with a face back that there is nothing good there ( though I always have enough variety of food in my pantry) , which actually meant that they need something new.
So finally I am back in kitchen with my love for baking and here are the few new recipes. More to come

Staring with something sweet.The beauty of this cake is its topping, sweet crunchy crumbs make this cake irresistible.

Ingredients:

Crump topping:
Plain flour - 1 1/2 cups (195 gms)
Firmly packed light brown sugar -3/4 cup (155 gms)
Powdered Cinnamon 1tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Unsalted butter, melted - 10 tbsp (140 gms)

Yogurt Cake:
All purpose flour - 1 2/3 cups (225 gms)
Baking powder - 1 tsp(4 gms)
Baking soda- 1/2 teaspoon (2 gms)
Salt 1/2 tsp(2 gms)
Powdered cinnamon -1/4 tsp
Instant coffee powder -1/2 tsp (optional)
Eggs -2 large
Oil - any flavorless -1/2 cup (120 ml/gms)
Greek Yogurt -3/4 cup (180 ml/gms) room temperature
Pure vanilla extract -1 tsp (4 gms)
Granulated white sugar -1 cup (200 gms)

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C)
2. Prepare the baking pan ( 8x8 inch) . Butter or spray with a non stick vegetable spray. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.

Crumb Topping:
1. In a bowl add the flour, sugar, ground cinnamon and salt.
2. Then add the melted butter and mix it until all the dry ingredients are just moistened. I used my hand to do so as it was easier.

Yogurt Cake:
1. Take a large bowl and add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, and espresso powder (if using).
2. In another bowl beat the eggs with a whisk and then add oil, yogurt, and vanilla extract.
3. Stir in the sugar.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined. the mixture would be sticky and a bit thick.
5. Add the batter into the prepared pan. Evenly scatter the crumb topping on top of the batter with your hand, braking lumps if any.
6. Press lightly so the crumbs adhere to the batter.
7. Place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Bake in preheated oven for about 40 - 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Tips:

1. You can reduce the quantity of overall crumb topping, if you like less of it.
2. We can just make a plain yogurt cake, without topping. Just use a smaller pan.