Sometimes you have no clue about what you’re doing, yet your clueless efforts result in something absolutely fantastic. The last day of Navratri, I had taken the day off. I don’t know if it’s just the control freak in me, but I tend to get a little disoriented if I do not start the day with a long to-do list in my mind. A Friday, Sam was at home too, and we had planned to TAKE-IT-EASY. Yes “taking-it-easy” is something that does not come naturally to me and for Sam, with his unforgiving schedule, it is something which has to be planned way in advance.
Whatever it is, the day was planned to be spent doing nothing and we had a lot of fun things lined up for the evening. I send G off to school and start flipping through a Bong magazine that my in-laws had brought with them. I spot a dessert and make a note in my mind to try something similar in the future. This was about nine thirty am in the morning. By eleven o’ clock, I was having a hard time stopping myself from thinking about it. Finally around noon, I drive to the grocery store and get the ingredients. And you guessed it, about three hours was spent thereafter in the kitchen trying not only one but three different things. Well, that’s me and that’s my connection with food.
Coming to the recipe, chhanar jilipi (Cottage Cheese funnel cake) is a very famous Bong sweet or dessert. That’s the recipe I had seen in the magazine. But I remembered seeing something called chhanar puli once on a TV show back home. Chhanar jilipi was the inspiration but I wanted to make chhanar puli which is a little different from the former. Faintly, remembered the ingredients and tried out something new with the syrup and it actually worked. So here is the recipe which started as a clueless experiment but won me accolades from everyone who tasted it.
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Channar Puli Recipe
- Prep Time: 45
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 65
Description
A traditional dessert with a personal twist (literally). Try this Traditional Bengali Dessert Channar Puli Recipe at Home.
Ingredients
- Condensed Milk- ½ cup
- All Purpose Flour – 1/4 cup ( can add a tbsp more if the dough is too soft)
- Mawa (Reduced milk) Powder – 3 tbsp
- Baking Powder – 1 tsp
- Ghee – 1 tbsp
- Ricotta Cheese – ¼ cup (make sure to squeeze out water)
- Cardamom Powder – 1 tsp
- Vegetable Oil – 3/4 cup (to fry)
- Sugar – 1 cup
- Water – 2/3 cup
Instructions
- Mix the condensed milk, flour, ghee, ricotta cheese, and two tbsp of sugar and mix together.
- The dough will be very soft. At this point add the mawa powder and a little more flour if required to make dough which can be given some shape.
- The dough will be sticky. Stick it in the refrigerator for 30 mins.
- In a pan add the sugar and the water and bring to a boil. Continue to boil for 10 mins or until it is a little thick and sticky.
- This recipe makes 6 chhanar pulis. Make six balls from the dough.
- You could retain the shape of a ball. In my case, I rolled out the ball into a rope less than a foot long and then made concentric circles with it like we generally make with chhanar jilipi.
- Heat the oil and lower the pulis one after another. Make sure to fry them over a medium flame, so that they get a golden brown color and is cooked from inside.
- Drop the pulis in the sugar syrup and let it soak it up for 10 mins.
- Remove from the syrup and store aside.
- Heat up the syrup again to a point where it actually becomes very thick and almost starts to caramelize.
- Pour the hot syrup on the pulis one spoon at a time. This will give them a sugar glaze very similar to what we do for donuts.
- Garnish with pistachios (extremely optional step) and enjoy.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6
- Calories: 472
- Sugar: 34
- Sodium: 40
- Fat: 34
- Saturated Fat: 5
- Unsaturated Fat: 27
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 40
- Protein: 5
- Cholesterol: 22
Keywords: Channar Puli Recipe
Find it online: https://www.myfridayfoodswings.com/channar-puli-cottage-cheese-dumplings/ [5]