Chenna Jhili ||Cheese balls in a light sugary syrup || How To Make

#Chenna Jhili

Ingredients

• Whole milk ( 1 litre ),
• Maida ( 1 tsp ),
• Powdered sugar ( 2 tsp ),
• Sugar ( 1 3/4 cups ),
• Cardamon (2 nos),
• Oil/ghee for deep frying. 

Chhena jhili is a popular dessert from Cuisine of Odisha. The birthplace is Nimapada in Puri district. It is prepared in fried cheese and sugar syrup.

The man who started preparing this sweet was Aarta Sahoo from the Shyam Sundarpur Village of Nimapara.

Preparation Time - 20 mins

How to Cook

To prepare chenna - Bring milk to a boil. Add the sour curd and wait for a few minutes till the milk solids separate from whey. The whey should have a clear appearance at this point. If not add more curd and boil for another 5 mins.

Once all the solids separate, strain the chenna using a fine cloth or even a strainer with very fine mesh. Allow to stand for some time till excess water is drained.

Around the same time, dissolve the sugar in 2 cups of water and bring to a boil on medium flame. Crush the cardamon and add to the vessel. We need a very light sugar syrup, so it takes about 7-8 minutes. Remove from flame just before it reaches a stringy consistency.

Take the chenna in a vessel/mixing bowl and add the maida and powdered sugar. Crumble and knead the chenna to remove lumps and it just comes together into a soft dough ( takes about 5-6 mins, do not overdo the kneading ). Pinch small lumps out of the dough and shape into balls. These balls can either be shallow fried or deep fried.

Heat sufficient oil/ghee in a wok. Put one ball into the wok and test if it holds together. If yes, add the remaining balls into the wok and fry them to a brown color on medium heat. (If it starts to crumble/break, add little more maida to the chenna dough and knead for another 2-3 mins.)

Once the balls are fried, put them into the vessel containing the hot sugar syrup. Allow to stand for an hour or so.

Serve with a garnish of chopped almonds or as it is.