Chenna Poda

Chhena poda is the quintessential cheese dessert from the state of Orissa in eastern India.

Chenna means cottage cheese or paneer. I prefer to make home made cheese/ panner. I use 1 Gallon of full cream milk to get cottage cheese/ Paneer. Just heat the milk and add lime juice till it curdles. Then use muslin cloth to drain out the whey and extract the cheese. A little moist cheese is perfect for this dish.

You need:

- Cottage cheese/ Paneer - 500 grams

- 5 tbsp of sugar

- 3Tbs suji/ semolina

- Half cup raisins
- Half cup cashew nuts (preferably raw)

- 2-3 Cardamoms

- Sugar syrup/ Chashni (around 1. 5 cups)

1. Put the cottage cheese/ paneer and suji in a container and mix thoroughly using a hand blender.

2. Fry the cashew nuts in a little oil so that they brown. Be careful not to overcook.

3. Add the cashews, raisins and all other ingredients other than the sugar syrup into the cheese mixture and mix thoroughly

4. Transfer the batter into a loaf tin about a 1 inch from top empty.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 325 F and bake it for 60-90 minutes until the top turns light brown.

6. While it is still a little warm, add the sugar syrup with cardamom powder in it.

7. Let it cool Cool it after taking out from the oven.

*Add milk in step 3 if the batter is too stiff/ dry. The mixture should be thicker than a pancake

batter but softer than a chapati dough. Coat the baking tin with butter/ oil