Tuesday 24 October 2017

Pantua | Bengali style Gulab jamun

This month is my blog's anniversary. I started this blog with just the intention of penning down my recipes and have been successfully doing so for the past 5 years. But now seems like I cannot live without this blog and my fellow marathoners. But the blog has not taken the top priority in my life. This year thanks to blogging marathon I have posted the highest number of recipes for a year. I can try to make it a century by december. 



For this week's blogging marathon I have picked up Diwali special sweets and savouries. Last month during the mega marathon my fellow marathoners presented many sweet recipes and I had bookmarked almost all of them. I picked up a bengali style sweet to start with - Pantua. Valli had posted this recipe and she has said in length about this bengali style gulab jamun and how this differs from the traditional gulab jamun that we make. Though I knew that gulab jamuns are made from khoya and all purpose flour; I have always tried it only with the MTR - gulab jamun mix. This time after seeing Vallis post I was tempted to make these jamuns and they turned out really yummy. 

I made very small balls and with the chana of about 4 litres milk; I got close to 30 balls. We all loved them and I also distributed these to friends and relatives. The effort involved is quite huge when compared with making with MTR mix but the taste is just out of the world and also the special feeling that you made it entirely by yourself.






Ingredients

Chana:
Milk - 4 litres
Lemon Juice - 4 tsp
Water as required

Sugar Syrup:
Sugar
Water
Cardamom powder
Saffron

Pantua:
Paneer / Chhana well kneaded - 1 cup 
Khoya - 2 tbsp 
A Pinch of Baking powder
All Purpose Flour / Maida - 1 tbsp 
Ghee - 1 tbsp 
Cooking Oil for deep frying


Method:

Prepare the chana

  • Have the lemon juice ready at hand.
  • Have a bowl lined with a muslin cloth and keep it ready.
  • In a thick bottom pan, boil the milk till it boils over, simmer for 5 mins.
  • Remove it from flame, add the lemon juice slowly and gently stir for the cheese to separate.
  • When you see greenish water, pour the entire content over the muslin cloth to gather the cheese.
  • Pour water over the cheese couple of times to remove traces of lemon 
  • Gather the edges of the cloth to tie the cloth and let it drain completely.
  • Ensure that the chhana is not completely dry.


For the sugar syrup

  • Take the sugar with water and let the sugar melt and remove the impurities if any. Then boil the sugar with the water till one string consistency is reached. 
  • This will take about 8-10 minutes. The syrup should be thick like how you make for gulab jamun.
  • Add cardamom powder and saffron to this sugar syrup and keep it aside.






For the Pantua

  • Take the crumbled paneer on a plate and with your heel, knead till there are no coarse grains or lumps and the Chenna becomes very soft.
  • Add the khoya, flour, ghee, baking powder to the soft chhana and knead it for nearly 10-12 minutes or till it starts releasing oil to make a smooth textured dough. 
  • In this stage, we must start with little flour and add as we go on kneading depending on how stiff the chhana becomes.
  • Cover the bowl and keep it aside for 30 minutes and divide the mixture into equal sized balls.
  • Heat a kadai with oil and reduce the flame when it reaches smoking point.
  • Gently drop the balls and fry on medium flame till golden brown.
  • Drain the Pantua and soak them in the prepared warm sugar syrup for 2-3 hours.





BMLogo

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#81

9 comments:

  1. They looks way better than the ones made with store bought packs. I love this recipe and I am bookmarking this to try sometime.

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  2. Happy anniversary Ruchi, so glad you tried this recipe and it surely looks so yummy!

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  3. Congrats on your blog anniversary, way to go. Those succulent pantua are seriously very inviting. Delicious sweets there.

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  4. Happy Anniversary ! Oh I am drooling over this sweet , it’s terribly terribly tempting !

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  5. Congratulations Ruchi on your 5th blogiversary. I think for most of us blogging has become a part of our lives. I don't know what I'd do without it. Pantua look so delicious. Its a recipe I'd like to try out in the future.

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  6. Hearty congratulations on your blog anniversary Ruchi. Wish you many many more such milestones.
    Those gulab jamun look absolutely delicious. Wish I could pick a few through the monitor :-)

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  7. Wish you many more blog anniversaries. The jamuns looks perfect to celebrate the occasion.

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  8. Congratulations, Ruchi!! These jamuns are perfect for any celebration!

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  9. Congratulations!!!What a lovely way to celebrate. Looks perfect

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