Make malai pedas with homemade chhena

Lifestyle : No festival is complete without a delicious dessert. And Navratri is one occasion where you can whip up a variety of special sweet treats for nine days. Milk, dry fruits, and cottage cheese are among the commonly eaten Navratri-special foods, and you can use the same ingredients to make creamy pedas. Kolkata-based food blogger Reshu Drolia recently showed us how to make saffron-flavoured malai pedas with homemade chhena or cottage cheese. And the recipe is quite simple, and requires some basic ingredients only. Try this:

Ingredients

For chhena/cottage cheese

1½ – Full fat milk
¼ cup – Water
1½ tbsp – Vinegar

For peda

2-3 tbsp – Milk, luke warm
10-12 – Saffron strands
260 g – Chhena (cottage cheese)
250 g – Khoya/maava
½ cup – Sugar or as per taste
½ tsp – Cardamom powder
Few drops of yellow food colour

* Add milk in a pan and bring it to boil as you stir it continuously.
* Turn off the flame. Allow it to cool for a little while.
* Add vinegar to a cup of water. Mix well. Now pour it into the milk and stir. This will give you chhena.
* Put a muslin cloth on a strainer and drain excess water from chhena. Cover it with the muslin cloth and let it rest for 10 mins.
* In a small cup, add few tablespoons of lukewarm milk. To this, add some saffron strands. Mix well. Keep it aside for 30 mins.
* In a pan, add the chhena and khoya and mix well. Now cook it on low flame for three to four mins.
* To this, add the saffron milk. Mix and cook again for three to four mins.
* Add sugar, cardamom powder and a little bit of yellow food colour. Mix all the ingredients till the sugar melts. The peda mixture should attain a thick consistency, after which you can turn off the flame. Let the mixture cool down.
* Now knead the mixture slightly with a spatula for two to three mins.
*Transfer the mixture to a plate. Take a small portion of the mixture and roll it into a ball. Press it slightly in the middle and fill it with pistachio and a wet saffron strand. Make similar pedas with the rest of the mixture and serve it for your family members.