Lady Kenny /Lady Canning : A Bengali Sweetdish

Dol or Holi made me dish up few of our very old ritual sweets /savoury items. Today’s sweet dish has a peculiar name called as Lady Kenny . Legend has it that during the beginning of 19^th century in Bengal, wife of the Viceroy Lord Canning had visited a suburb of Calcutta where elaborate arrangements were made to welcome her to the local Zamindar ( Landlord’s) house. Amongst many lavishly laid food items the Lady Canning liked a particular sweet very much. This sweet resembled a Gulab Jamun in its  stretched Avatar. So pleased was the Lady with the sweet that she asked for more of it and as a tribute to her , it was named after Her Excellency Lady Canning ( Lady Kenny pronounced in Bengali).

NOTE:- The Pantua and Lady Kenny are very similar, except that the latter has a raisin inside it and coated in castor sugar.

 Recipe Source: Minakshie DasGupta's The Bengal Cookbook

 Ingredients:
500 gms Channa /chenna
150 gms sooji /semolina
1 tsp Ghee 
3/4 cup Sugar
12 Raisins 
Pinch of Cardamom powder

Oil/ghee for frying

For Sugar Syrup
2 cups Sugar 
1 cup Water
2-3 Green cardamoms

Method:
In my next post I will show how to make Chenna/ chana for full cream milk. Here I have used homemade chenna. 

To proceed knead the channa, suji well with your fingertips till it turns into pliable state. Add ghee to make the dough smooth and soft. Add sugar and knead lightly for next 10 minutes. Divide the channa into approximately 12 equal portions. Roll them to form smooth round balls.

In between make sugar syrup by adding sugar and water and put the vessel on low flame. Stir constantly till the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is clear. Check the consistency of the syrup, once you get single thread consistency, remove from fire. Keep aside.

Sugar syrup....

Stuff each ball with a raisin and roll in the palms of the hands until round or oval shapes. Take a heavy wok and heat oil/ ghee. Drop 2-3 balls into the hot oil and flip in between for even frying. When they turn light brown remove from wok and place them on kitchen paper. 

Check the center one...it's coated with castor sugar....I don't like the extra sweetness so beside applying it on 2-3 I skipped the process

 Immerse in prepared syrup and leave it for an hour to soak it fully. Now remove Lady Kenny from syrup. Sprinkle castor sugar on a piece of waxed paper and roll each one to get the white sugar coating. You can decorate these with varak, fresh grated coconut. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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