Chanar Jalebi - By Chef Sushanta Barui

Chanar Jalebi is a popular Bengali sweet from India’s Eastern state: West Bengal. It's an Indian sweetmeat made with fresh cottage cheese of cow milk mixed with semolina and flour, shaped into a ‘figure 8 knot’ followed by deep frying and soaking in a simple syrup.

Servings: 6 pieces

Ingredients:

- 1 litre Whole Milk

- Juice of 2 Limes

- 2 tbsp. All-Purpose Flour

- 1 tbsp. Corn Flour

- 1 tbsp. Semolina or Sooji

- 1 tbsp. Khoya or Mawa

- ½ tsp. Baking Soda

- 1 tsp. Ghee

- Ghee or Oil to fry

- 1 cup Sugar

- 1 cup Water

- 1-2 Green Cardamom Pods

Method:

1. In a heavy-bottomed pan, bring the whole milk to boil over medium-high heat. After the first boil, lower the heat and add lemon juice from 2 limes (add more if needed) and stir it. The milk will start to curdle.

2. Strain the curdled milk in a clean muslin cloth and hang it for 1-2 hours. After 1-2 hours, you will have lovely chena or chana. Please note the chena should be completely dry, free of any water content. 1 litre milk will yield 200 gm of chena.

To make Sugar Syrup:

1. Pour water and sugar in a saucepan and gently bring it to a boil. Keep stirring so that the sugar is dissolved completely. Once you see that there are no more sugar crystals left, switch off the flame. Add the cardamom pods and stir.

To make Chanar Jalebi:

1. Take the chana or cottage cheese in a mixing bowl and knead it for 8-10 minutes to make it smooth and supple.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients like all-purpose flour, semolina, corn flour, khoya, and baking soda in it and knead it again.

3. Add milk to make the dough moist and pliable to form the shape of Chanar Jalebi. It should be kind of a sticky dough.

4. Add a teaspoon of Ghee to help you work with the dough.

5. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Take each portion and roll it long on your kitchen counter.

6. Once it is somewhere around 7 cms, take the ends and bring them together at the centre. Pinch the ends tightly so that they do not unfurl while frying.

7. Now, fry them in oil/ghee on very low heat. Once they turn golden brown, take them out and put them in sugar syrup. Let them soak for around an hour before serving.