Bengal is known for its delectable sweets. Sweets find an important place in the Bengali Thali. The Bengali desserts make use of sweetened cottage cheese / Paneer / chhana. Here is a variation to the creamy shondesh with a touch of pista.
I used :
Homemade paneer from 1 Liter milk .Make sure that the whey has been completely drained out.
Powdered sugar / castor sugar - ¼ cup [Increase if you have a sweet tooth]
Coarsely powdered pista nuts – less than ¼ cup
Chopped pista nuts to garnish
- In a pan put in paneer and sugar.Mix well.Heat the pan on low flame and gently cook the paneer mixture for a couple of minutes. The paneer should not change its color. Take care not to overcook it else the color will change and become crumbly.
- Remove from heat and transfer to a flat surface.
- Knead well for sometime while its still warm. You know that you have kneaded enough when the dough doesn’t split on the edges when rolled into balls.If you want to get it done fast, put the paneer mixture in a mixie jar and blend for a couple of minutes till it is creamy.Do not add water / milk to blend.Its very easy and quick.
- Shape the dough - you can use a mould or just shape into balls.
- Gently roll the shondesh over the coarsely powdered pista nuts.
- Serve garnished with chopped pista nuts.
There is another way that you can make this. Mix in the powdered nuts after removing the paneer from heat. In this case you just have to shape it and serve garnished with pista nuts.
Either way you prepare it, there is not much difference in the taste. Store in the refrigerator. But I don’t think you will have leftovers. It going to disappear the same day you make it!
Note :
Use fresh homemade paneer for a good texture and delicious taste. The Shondesh prepared from the store brought paneer will not taste as good as the ones prepared with fresh paneer.
The other recipe posted today -Shondesh
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Labels: Bengali Cuisine, Diwali Sweets, Paneer, Sweet temptations
