Home made Chhana/Chhena

Home made Chhena the unripened curd/cheese made from whole milk is the backbone of almost Bengali desserts and sweets.Last April during the month long marathon when I did A to Z Bengali recipes, I made this chhena twice for making Sondesh and Roshogolla.

What I learnt during the process of making Chhena is that to make it more soft and smooth knead it a couple of times before using it for the main dish.The other trick that I got to know from Nisha Madhulika’s is to add lemon juice only after the milk is cooled for 5 minutes.

Blogging Marathon#65 Week 4
Theme– Bookmarked Recipes
Dish-Chhena
Source–Here

Ingredients:
2 liter whole milk
juice of 1 lemon

Method:
Heat milk in a heavy bottom pan.Let it boil on simmer.Once boiled remove from heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.
Now start adding juice of one lemon little at a time and stir the milk.Stop adding the lemon juice once all the milk curdled and water is separated.
In a bowl place a muslin or cotton cloth and pour the milk mixture over it.Strain the chenna and wash it under running water 2-3 times to remove the lemon juice.
Now squeeze all the excess water from the chenna by pressing it in the palms inside the muslin cloth or let it tie on kitchen tap to drain all excess water.

Use it as required to make Roshogolla, Sondesh, Cham cham, etc.

Enjoy!!

Serve-300 gm Chhena Cooking time-30 minutes