Description
Chenna Poda or Chhena Poda is a signature Indian Sweet from the state of Odisha prepared with Fresh Chenna or Cottage Cheese
Ingredients
Units
Scale
To make Chhena:
- Full Cream Milk: 2 liter
- Lemon Juice or Vinegar: 3 Tbsp. (I prefer to use Lemon Juice for curdling the milk)
For making Chhena Poda:
- Cottage Cheese/ Chana/ Chhena: 2 Cup (Prepared from 2 litres of milk)
- Sugar: 2/3 cup
- Semolina: 2 Tbsp.
- Ghee/ Clarified Butter: 1 Tbsp.
- Green Cardamom: 8-10
- Baking Powder: 1/2 Tsp.
- Chenna Water: 1/2 cup
- Cashew Nut: Handful
- Raisin: Handful
Instructions
- [url href="https://kitchenofdebjani.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Making-of-Chenna-Poda-300x240.jpg"][/url]
- Start boiling entire milk in a deep vessel till bubble comes from the milk and then reduce the flame.
- Start adding Lemon Juice or Vinegar to the milk and stir with a ladle to mix the souring agent properly to curdle the milk.
- The Milk will start curdling within ½ minute or so and the water will also start separating from the Curdled milk.
- Switch the flame off and cover the vessel with a lid and wait for 5 minutes.
- Strain Chhena using a strainer but keep ½ cup of the water separated from the Chana for future use.
- Don't squeeze the Chhena much since we need a soft mixture for making Chhena Poda.
- Take warm Chhena in a bowl and add Semolina, Baking Powder and Sugar and mix lightly and leave the mixture for 5 minutes. This will help the semolina to absorb water from Chhena.
- Preheat the oven in 180 degrees C for 10 minutes.
- Now start kneading it using your hand. I've kneaded the Chenna for about 5 minutes to make a smooth paste until Sugar dissolves completely.
- Make a Powder of Green Cardamom Seed and mix with the Chhena Mixture.
- Now add little Chhena water to the mixture. I've added around 3 Tbsp. water to make a semi-thick mixture like a cake mixture.
- Now fry Cashew Nut and Raisin in little Ghee and add those to the Chhena mixture and mix lightly.
- Take a baking tin and line it with a parchment paper and pour the mixture in the baking tin and bake it in 180 degrees C for 30-40 minutes. It took me 40 minutes to bake my Chhena Poda.
- After 30 minutes of baking insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake and check whether it is done or not and if required bake for some more time. The toothPick should come out clean when the Chhena Poda done completely.
- Take the tin out of the oven and then using a knife open the sides of the Chhena Poda from the Tin and then just upside down it remove from the tin.
- Let it cool for 30 minutes at room temperature and transfer into the refrigerator if required however, we prefer to have it a bi hot.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Sweet
- Cuisine: Indian