Chhena Poda Recipe / Food Odisha / Famous Oriya Sweets

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Chhena Poda Recipe / Food Odisha / Famous Oriya Sweets

There are 2 occasions coming up on Feb 13 and Feb 14, 2018. Feb 13, 2018 is Maha Sivarathri and Feb 14 is Valentines Day as all of you know. There is a special recipe which suits both these occasions which I have been planning to post since long. I thought of posting this recipe for a long time but I was waiting for the right occasion. There could not be a better occasion more than this because there are two reasons to celebrate. 

I am talking about the famous Orissa sweet - Chenna Poda. Chhena Poda is also known as Pitha Poda.  This famous Odia sweet is  purely an Indian cake 🎂 which is made with  Fresh chenna ( paneer ). This is one of the traditional recipes of Orissa that is quite famous which is served to Lord Jagganath in Puri. This is a very rich cake or dessert dish that is sooooo delicious and lip smacking. My man and daughter just love this cake.

 

The origin of this Indian milk cake is from the state of Orissa. I was born in Berhampur, a famous town area in Orissa and was brought up in the capital city of Bhubaneshwar until the age of 7 after which I moved to our own state of Andhra. But my dad made frequent official visits to Bhubaneshwar. And there was this delicious eggless cheesecake on his return. In that way, we were connected to this dessert.

Traditionally this is made in a big earthen pot which is cooked on a very low flame 🔥for hours together. Since we do not have such equipment in our homes, we can make it in an oven or even in a pressure cooker. Today, I am gonna give the recipe that requires an oven.

Preparation

Take milk in a big vessel and bring it to a boil.

When it is boiling, add curd to cuddle the milk. If it doesn't curdle, add more curd and mix gently until the whey is separated from the milk solid.

Switch off the flame immediately and strain through a muslin cloth or a clean cotton cloth.

Do not throw the whey. You can use it for the preparation of chapathi or any other curries. You need not drain the water completely, it's ok even if there is a little amount of water in the chenna. Take curdled milk ( while it is still hot ) in a bowl and beat or stir until smooth.

Add sooji and mix well until smooth.

Add sugar and mix again until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Now add cardamom powder and mix once again. Add any nuts if you wish at this stage and mix well. I do not like any nuts or raisins in this cake, hence I have not added any. Keep aside.

Now take a pan and heat ghee. Add sugar and stir until it dissolves. 

Immediately switch off the flame and pour this sugar mixture in the greased baking pan. This gives a caramalisation effect for this pitha poda. This also makes the cake so juicy unlike the normal cakes. Now add the chenna mixture and bake at 170 degrees centigrade for 45 - 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. After baking, leave the cheesecake in the oven until it cools down completely. Once it comes to room temperature, invert the cake upside down onto a plate and cut into slices. Enjoy with family on the auspicious occasion of Mahasivarathri.

Ingredients

Milk  2l

Sugar  1 cup

Sooji  3 tbsp.

Cardamom powder  1/4 tsp

Nuts  2 tsp

Ghee to roast sugar 1 tsp

Curd  4 tbsp.

Sugar   ( for caramelisation )  1 tsp

Method

1. Curdle milk with the addition of curd at its boiling point. 
2. Strain the curdled0 mixture to separate the whey. Do not throw the whey.
3. Take the chenna in a bowl and add sooji. Mix well until smooth. 
4. Now add sugar and continue mixing until the sugar is well dissolved. 
5. Add cardamom powder and nuts and mix. Keep aside. 
6. Heat ghee in a pan and add sugar. Keep stirring until it dissolves. 
7. Immediately, pour it in the greased pan and add the chenna mixture on it. 
8. Bake at 170 degrees centigrade for 45 - 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
9. Let the cake cool completely in the oven. Remove on cooling and invert and slice the cake into pieces. 

Notes

• Adding roasted sugar to the baking pan gives a lovely caramelising to the ricotta cheesecake. So do not skip on this step. 
• The cake mixture should be smooth and like that of the normal cake mixture. Add little whey if your cake mixture is very thick.
• The original recipe calls for the addition of baking powder. But I did not feel the need of adding in my recipe. But if you wish, you can add 1/4 tsp of baking powder.

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How to make pumpkin halwa / Kaddu Ka Halwa / Pumpkin Halwa Recipe

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How to make pumpkin halwa  / Pumpkin Halwa Recipe / Pumpkin Halwa Recipe Step by Step / Kaddu Ka Halwa  

Hurrayyyyyy!....this is my hundredth post in my blog. Successfully completed 99 posts in my blog. All of them are mostly healthy, tasty and delicious. All the recipes are tried and tested in my kitchen. My biggest critics are my husband and daughter. They are big foodies and love tasty food.

On the occasion of my hundredth post, I initially thought of posting a simple and delicious cake, but I wanted to post some dessert which is healthy. So I changed my mind to post sweet pumpkin halwa. And I have reserved the cake recipe for the upcoming Christmas season. 

This pumpkin ka halwa is very delicious. It is a lip smacking dessert or sweet dish that my daughter loved it to the core. Soft, sweet and rich halwa that is prepared with grated pumpkin is a perfect treat for any occasion. Be it for Prasadam, festive occasion or any get-together, it suits all the occasions. It is also very easy to prepare in minutes with not much of preparation. So let's go ahead and prepare this lip smacking easy sweet dish and serve our family and guests.

Preparation

Heat ghee in a pan, preferably non stick pan.

Fry broken or whole cashews in the ghee until light brown in colour.

Remove the fried cashews to another plate. Add raisins in the remaining ghee and saute until they puff up.

Remove to a plate and add the grated pumpkin in the remaining ghee.

Sauté for 3-4 minutes and add milk.

Mix well and cover with a lid. Cook on a low flame until the pumpkin becomes soft.

Add sugar and mix well.

Now cook uncovered until the sugar is completely dissolved. When all the water is absorbed and the halwa thickens, add the roasted cashews and raisins and mix well.

Finish off with cardamom powder and pepper powder and switch off the flame.

Mix well and serve warm or chilled. In both ways, it tastes great. You can also garnish with pumpkin seeds to get an extra nutty flavour.

Ingredients

Pumpkin  3 cups ( grated )

Ghee  2 tbsp

Cashews  Few

Raisins  Few

Milk  1 1/2 cups

Sugar  1 cup

Cardamom powder  1 big pinch

Pepper Powder 1 pinch

Pumpkin seeds  to garnish

Method

1. Grate pumpkin and keep aside. 
2. Heat ghee in a pan and roast the cashews and raisins. Remove to another plate. 
3. Add the grated pumpkin in the remaining ghee and saute for 3-4 minutes.
4. Add milk and cook covered until the pumpkin becomes soft. 
5. Add the sugar and cook uncovered until the sugar dissolves completely. 
6. Cook until the water is completely evaporated and the residue thickens. 
7. Add the roasted dry fruits and cardamom powder and pepper powder.
8. Mix well and switch off the flame. 
9. Garnish with extra dry fruits or pumpkin seeds. 
10. Serve warm or chilled as per your desire.

Notes

• You can add other dry fruits like almonds, dates and pistachios as per your choice. 
• Adding milk is optional. You can also add water and prepare this pumpkin halwa. Addition of milk gives richness to the dessert and tastes awesome. You can also add more milk if you want it more rich. Some people also add khova to give an extra richness. 
• In the similar way, we can also prepare lauki ki halwa and other amazing sweets which I will be posting very soon. So be tuned, my friends. 
• After you add sugar, it releases more water but do not panic. Cook until all the water is evaporated.

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custard apple rabdi / sitaphal rabdi recipe / custard apple dessert recipes

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sitaphal rabdi recipe / custard apple recipes dessert / custard apple fruit recipes

Custard apple - a mouth watering  fruit famous for its sweetness and creamy texture. Me and My kids love this yummy 😋 fruit. Come the winter season and they await the custard apple. If I get the raw ones they keep an eye on them until they become ripe. If they can't wait for such long, then they put some of these fruits in the middle of the rice grains sack . By the next day, the fruits would be ripe and ready for use.

This time I wanted to try a special dish with this delicious fruit - custard apple Rabdi. I generally do not believe in cooking with fruits. Because I am of the opinion that veggies are meant for cooking and fruits should be consumed as is. But this sitaphal rabdi is an exception to this notion of mine.

When I first heard of this recipe, I was quiet tempted to try this out. Firstly, because rabdi is a rich, delicious and creamy dessert 🍨 made with milk. Secondly, seethaphalam is a fruit with similar qualities. The fusion of these two ingredients yielded another dessert dish which was soooooo delicious.

Seethafal rabdi was very smooth, creamy , soft and melt in mouth dessert with the flavour of custard apple. My man loved it a lot and I was on cloud ⛅ nine. Can somebody get me down? Or maybe, you can join me on this cloud by preparing this guilt free sweet dish.

You can also refer my other healthy sweet recipes,

Sesame seeds laddu

Aval Kesari

Carrot Kheer

Undrallu

Boorelu

Coconut Laddu

Banana Appalu

Paneer Kheer

Sheer Khorma

Preparation

Extract the pulp from the custard apples and keep it aside. Take milk in a pan. I have used a non-stick pan, but you can use a normal one as well.

Cook on a low flame stirring every 2-3 minutes.

We want to make a rabdi with this milk. So, boil on a low flame until it becomes almost half of the original quantity and the colour changes to a creamy, that’s when we have attained the consistency of rabdi. At this point, add sugar and mix well.

We add sugar to prevent milk curdling after adding the pulp of custard apple. Sometimes, even after the addition of sugar, the milk tends to curdle. So, add a pinch of baking soda. Mix well. Now add the pulp of custard apple and mix well.

Mix well. Taste a spoonful for the sweetness. If it is not sufficient, add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. If it has become too sweet, then add little milk and balance it. The sweetness of the custard apples differs from one apple to another. So do check for the taste before proceeding further. Allow it to come to a boil.

Upon cooling, the rabdi tends to thicken. So, make sure that you do not thicken it so much at the time of cooking. Add a pinch of cardamom powder as per your taste. I did not want the flavour of cardamom in my custard apple dessert, hence avoided it. But, if you like the flavour of cardamom with that of custard apple, then add a pinch of it and mix well.  When it starts boiling, switch off the flame and serve at room temperature or chilled. It is best served when chilled. 

Ingredients

Custard apple   2 ( in numbers )    Or    Custard apple pulp  1 cup

Milk  2 cups

Baking soda  pinch

Sugar  1 tsp

Cardamom powder pinch  (optional)

Method

1. Keep the pulp of the custard apples ready. 
2. Boil milk in a pan on a low flame stirring it once in every 2-3 minutes. Bring it to the consistency of rabdi.
3. Once the milk is thickened and becomes cream in colour, add sugar and mix well.
4. Add a pinch of baking soda and mix again.
5. Now add the pulp of the custard apples and mix well.
6. Bring it a boil and switch off the flame. 
7. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Notes

• Sometimes, when you add baking soda to milk, it becomes frothy. That is totally fine. Stir and add the pulp of the custard apples and proceed with the cooking. 
• Addition of cardamom powder is totally optional. I do not prefer it personally in this recipe. But if interested , you can just add a pinch of it. If you add too much, then the flavour of the custard apple will be dominated by that of the cardamom powder. 
• Before you switch off the flame, check for the sweetness. If it not sufficient, then add 1 - 2 teaspoons of sugar. Sometimes the sweetness of one custard apple varies from that of the others. If the sweetness is too much, then add little milk to balance it. 
• This sitaphal rabdi can also be prepared with unsweetened condensed milk.  Dilute the unsweetened condensed milk with little milk to prepare a rabdi consistency. Put on flame, add the pulp of the custard apple and mix well. Switch off the flame and serve chilled. Quick and easy way to prepare the rabdi. Enjoy with your family and friends. 

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ellu urundai / til ke laddu / sesame seed balls / chimmili / nuvvula undallu

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 Sesame Laddu / Black Sesame Ladoo / Chimmili / using Jaggery 

Chimmili or also known as nuvvula undalu ( sesame sweet balls ) is the famous dish of the Telugus from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This is especially prepared on the occasion of Nagula Chavithi that falls on the 5th day after Deepavali. On this auspicious day of Nagula Chavithi people go the snake hills and perform puja. They offer Prasadam, eggs and milk and pray to the pious snakes.

I wanted to prepare this sweet since a long time. It so happened that when I went to my maternal uncle´s place, I met a good friend of his who is an Ayurvedic doctor by practice. He had suggested the consumption of this sweet on a daily basis for healthy bones. He insisted on the usage of black sesame seeds and jaggery. Since then, I had the ingredients ready, but it was just that I did not focus much on it.

Now on this auspicious day, I have planned to prepare this as Naivedhyam to the Snake God. We are using black sesame seeds in the preparation of this sesame sweet. Basically, chimmili is prepared with white sesame seeds, but keeping in mind the doctor´s suggestion, I prepared this using both the black and white sesame seeds. Black sesame seeds are more healthier than that of the whiter version. Black sesame seeds are the original sesame seeds. They are washed thoroughly over and over again. They are then dried and put in the mill to extract the oil from them. The remaining fiber content after removing the oil from the sesame seeds is known as telaga pindi in Telugu. This telagapindi is also rich in calcium and considered to be very healthy and is hence used in the preparation of many curries. We prepare pindi vadiyalu with this so called telaga pindi.

Coming back to our recipe, just three ingredients go into the preparation of chimmili - black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds and jaggery. The making of chimmili is also very easy. Nuvvula undalu is also similar to the chimmili in the taste. But it differs on the terms of texture and preparation. Nuvvula undalu is made with jaggery syrup and the sesame seeds are not grounded to a powder. But in chimmili, the sesame seeds are grounded to a coarse powder and mixed with grated jaggery. They are then given shapes and offered to Snake God as Prasadam. You can also refer to my other healthy sweets that should be had on a daily basis.

Preparation

Take black sesame seeds in a pan. Dry roast them on a low flame for 2-3 minutes. Transfer to another plate.

In the same pan, dry roast the white sesame seeds and fry on a low flame for 2-3 minutes. Switch off the flame and allow them to cool completely.

Meanwhile, grate the jaggery or make a powder in the mixie jar and keep aside. When the sesame seeds come down to room temperature, make a coarse powder of them in the mixie jar. Do not run the mixie jar for a long time as the sesame seeds will release the oil completely. Just pulse it for a few seconds each time until you get a coarse powder.

Transfer to a big plate and mix the sesame seeds powder, salt and jaggery.

Mix well. If you are unable to mix it evenly with your hand, then transfer the entire contents to a big mixie jar and run for a few seconds to get it mixed evenly. Give shapes to the resultant mixture and store in an airtight container. Consume each ball a day ( morning or evening ). This kale til ke ladoo is especially advised for all the ladies for healthy bones.

Ingredients

White sesame seeds  1 cup

Black sesame seeds  1 cup

Jaggery  1 1/2 cups

Salt a pinch

Method

1. Dry roast the black sesame seeds and white sesame seeds separately one after the other. 
2. Allow them to cool completely. 
3. Mixie the sesame seeds to a coarse powder. 
4. Add jaggery and mixie once again for even mixing of the jaggery with the sesame seeds powder.
5. Give shapes as round balls and store in an airtight container.

Notes

• You can also add half a teaspoon of cardamom powder while mixing. 
• A pinch of salt should be added to these chimmili balls to equalise the taste of the jaggery. 
• There is no requirement of ghee as sesame seeds have oil in them which help to give shapes easily to the chimmili or the nuvvula undalu ( sesame seed balls ). 
• Dry roasting the sesame seeds is optional. You can start off with grinding the seeds and mixing with the jaggery to prepare this delicious til ke laddu. 

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