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Saturday, October 28, 2006

Sandesh

Trick or Treat with Sandesh
What will be your take , read on to know mine for this festival being celebrated in this part of world, the most attractive part being the children , seeing lovely smiling faces dressed in some colourful ways or may be scary sometimes , families coming together and celebrating things called joys of life ......


I wonder how humans have developed a keen interest in celebrating , celebrating the joys of life , celebrating colours and Light , I have found that both Halloween and our own Deepavali , are festival revolving around lights and the joys of children ,we Bengali’s celebrate Deepavali as Kali Puja …the legend says that to defeat the Demons Shumbha/Nisumbha, Maa kali came to rescue the world ,more story here
Kali-pooja-in-Bengaland another legend of Rama-return-to-ayodhya
and these are some of the interesting poems on Diwali ,I kept reading the first one and laughing a lot …Diwali-poems
It will be Halloween on Tuesday 31 October , and children will be coming with trick or treat Tradition, what attracts me more is them being dressed as fairies, monster , and batman to anything scary , scary but enjoyable scary haha …….

The legend says Halloween is being celebrated to mark the harvest festival and also its originated in Ireland ,Britain and northern Europe…more legend stories here
halloween history
So get ready for the Jack-o-Lantern, theme parties and getting together …
So guess , making homemade Sandesh will be fun also …this is a recipe I learned from my MIL and I am still in the learning process , she used to make it every morning to give as sweet Treat in her son’s lunch box .Sometimes making the Chana ( Cottage cheese) in the night for a quicky
in the morning ….so it was treat everyday .Being Bengali sandesh is such a favourable thing I can’t think anything else…
Without much adding to intro here is a simple recipe for Sandesh


Ingredients
3-4 cups of milk
sugar as per taste ,I added 4-5 tbs of sugar
2 tbs of mango syrup, for the colour and some light mango fragerance
1 lemon


Method
Bring the pot with milk to a boil, meanwhile cut the lemon in halves , add the fresh juice from it to the milk (I will suggest not to use the lemon juice in plastic lemon available in vegeatble section , fresh lemon juice has been more effective than anything else, )
Let it curdle up , make Chana out of the milk, squeeze the excess liquid from Chana, set aside in a bowl.
Add sugar , mango syrup, and now the fun part ,with your hands ,blend the Chana and the sugar well , knead it properly ,so that chana becomes smooth, and sugar evenly distributed
Now heat a saucepan , and add the above chana mixture to it ,cook it at low stiring continously and sometimes putting the flame to medium ,when you feel its becoming bit low on temperature, the trick is to maintain a temperature in which the mixture don’t get burnt and you come out making sandesh with flying colours…My Mil says it like “ Chana ke Paak deva
Take the mixture out when you feel that the mixture has little bit dried and easily being released from the pan while stiring, the constitency will be little bit dried but not grainy , take it out and immediately roll into small balls and shape them in whatever way you feel look beautiful …cool, serve and enjoy with your loved ones ..
I have found that while shaping the sandesh since the paak mixture is hot , if you slightly flour your hands then the sandesh is perfectly rolled into desirable shape and also it doesn’t hurt your hands.
I have used mango syrup for a flavour for mango sandesh , but rosewater, or saffron can be used to give different flavours to sandesh….

So wish everybody a Happy and scary Halloween …
This is also my entry to the to the VCC:VCCq3-2006 being hosted by Vkn of MyDhaba
Taking my days as it comes and enjoying the Fall here , hope everybody enjoying nature also.
Happy Halloween
I will be back with some more recipes next time ,till then Bon Appetite , Happy cooking .

13 comments:

  1. The sandesh looks delicious mantu. My mom also shapes the sandesh when it is warm from the paak... yummy

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  2. Great scawwy sweet for Halloween, Mantu!! looks like monster's eye!!Good job!

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  3. wow..great work mantu... i always feel sandesh is tooo much of work :)

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  4. Thanks for stopping by my blog and I do hope you will stop by again. You have a really nice blog here. will be coming back for more. I found someone who loves the moon and the stars:)

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  5. Mandira ,My Mil is an expert in making and shaping the sandesh while the Paak mixture is hot , I am still learning ....thanks for stoping by ...

    Ya ,Thanks Asha for your kind words ..have fun in Halloween with your kids...

    Sandeepa ,yes sandesh requires a lot of work , but I am glad it turn out well ... happy halloween and have fun with kids...

    Starry dear ,thanks for stoping ,welcome to my small world ...thanks for liking it ..

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  6. Jayashree, that sounds like so much work....but I bet it tastes great!!! Happy halloween...and thank u for ur comments on my baby blog.

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  7. Hi
    thanks for your comment.
    Yes, you can use yogurt incase you don't have buttermilk. but add some water to it and beat well, should be buttermilk consistency.
    first time to your blog , nice work.

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  8. Happy Halloween, Jayashree!!

    Thanks for dropping by my blog and leaving a comment. Welcome to the food blogging world. That's a great entry to the VCC. I just love Sandesh..

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  9. woh!! that looks amazing!!
    and thank u for u'r comments on my blog!!

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  10. woh!! that looks amazing!!
    and thank u for u'r comments on my blog!!

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  11. jayashree, making sandesh is a way too much job but when I see smiles on my loved one face I forget everything ....thanks for stoping by ...

    A warm welcome to you Lakshmi , thanks for stoping by...

    Hi Sailaja ,thanks for your Kind words , warm welcome to my small world .we kind of like sweets more isn't !! nice to hear from you ...

    Padmaja !! I kind of liked what you have put for healthy eating ...thanks for stoping here...





















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  12. Hey Jayashree,
    Good to see another passionate-about-cooking person...hope to learn some authentic bangla recipes from you and Sandeepa

    Warm regards
    Nandita

    BTW shall be posting theme for the next month;s event soon!

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  13. Thanks for droping by Nandita ,a warm welcome to my small world here .....

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