Cham-Cham (Cottage Cheese-based, syrupy sweet dish)

Posting a Cham-Cham recipe when I am pretty upset with myself. How ironic is that now! Yeah, it’s been so long and I have been MIA. Not that I haven’t been indulging in good food, it’s just that I have focused only on indulging and been too lazy to take measurements of the ingredients, pictures and writing the recipe. Ok, I am only trying to tell myself what not to repeat next time around!

Isn't the name itself so cute - 'Cham - Cham'!! (pronounced chum-chum). Anyways, there were two reasons why I wanted to resume my blog with my all time favorite sweet Cham-Cham. One was that it’s nice to restart on a sweet note, especially if you have a sweet tooth like mine J . And second reason, is to welcome my newest niece - Niketa!

Ok just to give you some background, I just love sweets made from Chenna/ Paneer (Cottage Cheese). I just love the way most of them look so pearly white, delicate and elegant but once you bite into them, they just go burst with all the juices and the texture makes you want to chew on it as much as you can, but your mind wants you to just gobble it up so that you could pop another one into your mouth. Ah, sweets!

Ok. So it’s fairly simple. 3 simple steps. Make paneer/ cottage cheese, dunk it in light sugar syrup and cook, then chill in refrigerator and serve. To serve you could have many variations. I prefer it plain but many in my family like it with saffron flavored malai/ clotted cream topping with some dry fruits like pistachios or sliced almonds.

You can only guess how irresistible these were - while pictures were being taken, cham-cham's were disappearing! :)

You need: (makes 7-8 nos.)

For Cham- Cham

Whole milk -  1 Ltr  (1 Qrt)

Lemon juice – 2 (milk you get in  US takes some effort to curdle!!)

Sugar – 2 Cups

Rose/Kewra water – 1- 2 drops (optional if you like the essence)

For the Malai/Clotted Cream

Full  cream milk – 3 Cups (look for cooking cream)

Sugar – 2 Tbsp (adjust to taste)

Green cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

Saffron – a pinch soaked in 3-4 tbsp of warm milk for 20 min.

To garnish:  Sliced pistachios or almonds. 

1. Bring milk to a boil and add the lemon juice.
2. Keep stirring and boiling till you get lumps of paneer/cheese in pale green water residue. You will know that the cheese has totally separated from the water content.
3. Pour this mixture through a muslin cloth placed on a colander and run under cold water to remove any sour taste from the lemons.  Remove any lemon seeds that might have sneaked in somehow.
4. Squeeze out as much water as you can. You will know if its dry enough if you take a small sample between you both palms and rub for sometime and then when you roll it into a ball its smooth without obvious big cracks.
5. Now on a smooth clean surface, knead the paneer/cheese till it forms a crack free, clay kind of dough. This should take 5 min for a person like me who is a little challenged when it comes to muscle power. So pass on this job to someone who is more efficient.  J
6. Now divide this into 7-8 equal portions. Remember these will be almost double in size when they are ready.
7. Roll into small cylindrical shape and gently flatten them. Just enough so that they don’t start rolling when placed on a plate. No, taste will not differ if they roll, this example is just to tell you how gently should you press to flatten them a bit.  J
8. Now in a wide and deep pan boil 5 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar and stir to dissolve completely. The pan should be wide enough to accommodate chum-chums that will almost double in size. Please don’t make them fight for space and sugar syrup. J
9. Now add those paneer/cheese dumplings to the syrup and bring it back to a boil. Now reduce the heat to medium and cover the pot. Cook for 10 minutes.
10. Now flip the dumplings on the other side,  add rose or kewra essence if you wish to , cover and cook for another 15 minutes.
11. Now switch off the heat and keep it as is with lid on for another 10 min.
12. Time to remove the cham- chams from the syrup and transfer to refrigerator to chill.

To make Saffron Malai/ Clotted Cream:

1. In a heavy bottom pan bring milk to a boil. Now on medium low heat, reduce to half  stirring every now and then to avoid sticking to bottom.
2. Now add the 2 tbsp sugar, cardamom powder and saffron.
3. Reduce further to desired consistency. This will thicken a little more once cooled, so take that into consideration while adjusting the consistency.

To serve:

Serve cham-cham with almonds/pistachios or plain. Or drizzle cham-cham with malai and garnish with almonds or pistachios.

Shrimps in Mustard Paste

This favorite of mine is a classic for prawn/shrimp lovers, especially so if you like the Oriya/Bengali way of cooking with a mustard paste. It's easy to make - take sless than 30 minutes, and makes you go absolutely slurp-slurp-slurp! The taste differs quite a bit depending on whether you use fresh mustard paste, english mustard or dijon or any of the ready made mustard pastes available in supermarkets. If you have a coffee/spice grinder, I definitely recommend using fresh mustard seeds. So here you go!

You need (Serves 2):

10-12 prawn/shrimps (up to your apetite really!)
Onion - 1 medium, sliced
Tomato - 1 medium chopped fine
Green chili - 2, slit
Ginger-garlic paste (2 tbsp) or if you want to make it fresh, 1 inch ginger grated and 4-5 cloves of garlic crushed fine
Panch phoran (1 tsp)
Mustard seeds (2 tbsp)
Mustard oil
Yogurt/Set Curd - 1 cup (beaten thoroughly)

For the mustard paste:
Soak the mustard seeds for 1 hour, and then grind into a paste with the spice grinder. Add a little water to ensure you get a creamy texture.

Heat 4 tbsp of mustard oil in a fry pan and fry the prawns in on medium to low heat for 5-8 mins
Take the fried prawns out, and to the same oil, add the panch phoran.
Once the panch phoran starts spluttering, add the split green chilis
Add the sliced onions and fry till translucent (I like to fry them a little more, since I like the dhaba effect of extra fried onions)
Add the ginger and garlic paste and fry till the raw smell is gone. Cover the pan with a lid from time to time to retain moisture.
Now add the tomatoes and cook for 3-5 minutes
Lower the heat, add the mustard paste and the fried prawns and mix slowly. Cover the pan and let it settle for a couple more minutes
Add the curd and mix slowly. Make sure you do this under very low heat, so the gravy does not curdle.
Serve with white rice.

Channar Payesh / Chenna Kheer (Cottage Cheese Pudding)

You know India is not just a big, but a diverse country too, when words like Chennar / Channar / Chenna, paneer, all essentially mean cottage cheese and Payesh, payes and payasam refer to pudding. OK now to the food! :)

Its delicate, its super delicate. Not only in the context of texture or the way it should be handled, but in taste too. Very refreshing almost like a palate cleanser kind of dessert. Everything is in such harmony - the texture, the look, the taste. You wonder if you could compare it to fine wine. 

It would be an amazing dessert for diabetics and the calorie conscious too! You can cut down on calories to bare minimum and still find this dessert delectable. But remember, its not a typical super sweet, syrup-y, sticky, deep fried Indian dessert,  it's 'paneer- ki-kheer'. Made from cheese and should be savored liked fine cheese.

In my personal opinion, its again one of those desserts that would also be enjoyed by people  who are not used to typical Indian sweets or even those who don't have a very sweet tooth.

One request! Please, please, please don't use store bought paneer/cottage cheese. Making fresh paneer is the only way to do it right. Spend extra 15 min making paneer, and you won't regret it! For those who have never made paneer at home, just follow the steps as is, and you won't go wrong!

You need: Serves 4

For paneer/ cottage cheese

Milk – 1 Ltr. (you can use whole milk or 2% , for diabetic use 2% milk)

Lemon juice of 1.5- 2 lemons. (yes, you do require that much, sometimes even more)

For the payesh/ kheer:

Milk – 500 ml

Evaporated milk – 200 ml (Can replace this with another 500 ml of milk but then you will have to reduce this till half in quantity over low flame. Adding evaporated milk makes my job easier and faster too)

Light brown sugar – 2 Tbsp (replace with regular sugar but the brown sugar gives a nice earthy, nutty taste and works as a substitute for date-jaggery which is traditionally used for this recipe, but don't panic, regular sugar works just fine! For diabetics or weight watchers, replace with sugar substitute)

Saffron – 6-7 strands

Chopped dry fruits like Almonds, Pistachios, Raisins and Cashews

Making the paneer:

1. In a deep heavy bottom sauce pan bring milk to a boil. 
2. Now add the lime juice and continue boiling till the whey completely separates from milk solids. You know all the milk has curdled, when milk solids are lumpy and the whey  becomes pale yellowish transparent liquid and has absolutely no milky texture at all.  In fact the whey will almost seem, as if screaming – I have no more left in me!! :). 
3. Pass this over a cheese cloth placed on a colander. 
4. Run cold water over it quickly. This helps in keeping the paneer soft and creamy.
5. Hold the end of the cheese cloth and squeeze out all the water. Just be careful when you do this as the heat of the paneer can sometimes be harsh. 
6. Transfer to another bowl and lightly crumble it with your fingers. Keep aside.

Making the payesh:

1. In a heavy bottom pan (preferably non-stick) bring milk to a boil. Reduce flame to simmer and let it reduce to almost half the quantity. Stir intermittently to avoid sticking to the base and burning. 
2. Optional step for calorie conscious folks or diabetics – Cut down both milk and evaporated milk to half.  Boil on low flame to reduce to 3/4th of the quantity. Add 1 slice of bread (with brown edges removed) that has been blended with a little milk to form a smooth paste. This will give the same texture of reduced milk and the flavor will come from the saffron anyways. This is a nice cheat sheet for most recipes that call for reduced milk !:)
3. Add saffron strands, sugar. Boil for another 7-10 min making sure the milk and sugar doe not stick to the base of the pan. 
4. Add paneer and dry fruits. Stir for 1 min. This payesh thickens a little when chilled. So adjust the consistency at this stage by adding a little milk or evaporated milk. 
5. Switch off, cool and transfer to the refrigerator. Chill for 2-3 hours. 

*The milk in India curdles very fast, but in the US, I have no idea what gives milk so much strength to resist curdling :). It takes 2-3 big lemons to do the job. So don't worry, just add more lemon juice if you are not sure if it has curdled completely. You can always wash it off under water to remove too much lemony taste later.

**Make sure you don't use the same spatula used to make paneer while making payesh. You don't want to make more paneer!! :)

***Unlike most Indian sweets, there is no cardamom used. This is to retain the delicate taste of saffron and paneer. Though I am a cardamom addict in sweets, personally prefer this without cardamom. But then, you are free to use it if you like. 

****While there is a lot of debate over sugar substitute not being good for health,  I use Truvia as a sugar substitute whenever required. Not that I am endorsing this product but it does claim to be made from plant extract. I still need to read up more to know how genuine these claims are. Till then, Truvia it is! 

Mutton Kasha (Spicy Dry Mutton)

Bengalis and Oriyas swear by this dish. Traditionally, this is cooked in a handi or deep pan and is cooked for a good 1 hour with very little water and under low heat - and quite naturally needs patience! For those of us brilliant chefs who suffer from a short-attention-span problem, the pressure cooker approach certainly takes the pressure off standing and stirring the mutton pieces continuously.


Many variations exist, but the essentials pretty much remain the same. A ginger-garlic-green chili paste, thinly sliced onions (blended works too), little bit of curd, whole garam masala, mustard oil and a lot of frying is what will get you there! Steamed rice works well as does roti, but my personal favorite is with light wheat parathas or rumali roti.


You need

400 gm mutton cut into bite sized pieces

Ginger (1 inch) Garlic 95 cloves) and Green chili (2)  - blended to a paste

1 big onion sliced into thin long pieces (you can blend this one too)

1/2 tsp turmeric

2 tsp roasted cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala pwder

1 tsp red chili powder

2 tbsp curd

3-4 pieces of green cardamom

3-4 cloves

1 bay leaf

cinnamon sticks (2 nos of 2 in pieces)

salt to taste

1. Marinate the mutton pieces with the roasted cumin powder, turmeric, garam masala, red chili powder, curd and salt and set aside for 1 hour
2. In a pressure cooker, heat 4 tbsp of mustard oil and temper with bay leaf, cinnamon sticks, cloves and green cardamom
3. Add sliced onions and fry till golden brown
4. Add the ginger-garlic-green chili paste to the onion and fry for 2-3 minutes more (till the raw smell is gone)
5. Add salt to taste
6. Add the marinated mutton pieces and fry on low heat for 15-20 mins
7. Now add 1/2 cup of water and close the lid of the pressure cooker and put the whistle on
8. Switch off after 6 whistles, wait for the pressure to ease off and open
9. Now smell the amazing aroma of mutton kasha and eat to your heart's content!

Fish in mustard based gravy

Traditionally this preparation is made with Rohu/ Hilsa, but a lot of people find tilapia to be a good substitute, in the absence of the said fishes. However I prefer Salmon over Tilapia in this curry. Am not sure how authentic can you call this recipe (compared to the Bengali and Oriya style) as I have tried to check almost every blog/ site, but found each one slightly different from the other in some way. So learning from my earlier numerous attempts and instinct, I tried this today with some more variations, and I think, this was the closest to the mustard fish I have tasted in some restaurants. It has a balanced flavor of pungent mustard, tang from tomates and sweetness from onions.

You need:

Salmon steaks (cut into 3 inch x 3 inch)

Mustard seeds – 3 Tbsp

Poppy seeds – 1 Tbsp

Green Chili – 3 nos

Coriander leaves – 3 tbsp

Oil

Nigella seeds

Potato – 1 No (Cut into wedges, dont peel it)

Tomatoes – 1 No (Cut into wedges)

Garlic Paste – 1.5 tsp

Onion – 1 no. (Thin sliced)

Coriander powder

Turmeric powder

Garam Masala

Salt

Mustard oil

1) Coat the fish with salt, turmeric powder and little mustard oil. Leave it for 15-20 min.

2) Take oil in a non stick pan. Fry the potatoes wedges till light brown (almost cooked)

3) In the same oil, fry the fish till 3/4^th done. Remove the fish.

4) In this oil, add nigella seeds. Once it gives an aroma, add the garlic paste and fry till light brown.

5) Now add the onion, salt and turmeric and fry till light brown.

6) Add coriander powder, garam masala and fry.

7) Add water depending on the consistency you like and bring to a boil.

8) To this, add the potatoes and fish, cover and cook for 2-3 min.

Serve hot with steamed rice.

Doi Maach

Doimaach (Carp in yogurt based gravy)

You need:
500 gms Rohu fish (carp fish)
100 gms curd
3 tbs. Onion paste
1 tbs. Ginger paste
1 tbs. Jeera (Cumin) paste
1/2 tsp. Garlic paste
1 tsp. red chilli powder
1 tsp. Haldi powder (Turmeric)
1 tsp. Cumin seeds
3 Cardamom
3 cloves

1 inch stick Cinnamon
2 Bay leaves
4 green chilli (slit)
4 tbs. Oil
1 tsp. Ghee
1 tbs. sugar
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Wash the fish with cold water. Smear haldi and salt to the fish pieces and keep them aside.

Whip the curd well in a large bowl and prepare a marinade with the curd, onion paste, ginger-garlic paste, sugar, chilli powder and salt and blend it thoroughly.
Heat oil and shallow fry the fish pieces in a deep pan/kadai till yellowish brown. Then strain them.
Now add the bay leaves, the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and cumin seeds and allow it to splutter. Add the masala paste left to marinade and fry it till the oil starts leaving it from all sides. Now add the fried fish and cook for another 8 mins.
When the fish is done add the ghee and the green chillies.

Serve hot with steaming rice.

**Cooking on medium flame recommended.

Daarun !!!