Pistachio Sandesh / Pista Sondesh : A Bengali Sweet

Sandesh/ Sondesh ( Sweet with cottage cheese) and a Bengali Foodie both complement each other.  There is not a single instance where you visit a Bengali’s house during evening and you are not offered a plate of shandesh. Moreover, we Bengalis are known for having a sweet tooth ( another reason why Bengali language is adjudged as the Sweetest language by UNESCO). So my dear friends indulge in a variety of sandeshes to your heart’s fill and you won’t at all regret it. I have added pistachio powder to chenna to make it flavored one.

Ingredients:
2 Ltr Full cream Milk
2 tbsp Lemon juice
3/4 cup Sugar(powdered) {you can adjust the sweetness }
1/2 cup Pistachio powder
1 tsp Rose water
1 tsp Cardamom powder 
2-3 green Color drops is optional.(I added here nice color)
Few strands of Saffron for decoration
Few Pistachios for decoration

Method:
To make chenna first, take a pan and bring the milk to boil on low flame. Stir occasionally to avoid getting scorch from bottom. Then add lemon juice and milk will start to curdle. This is called cottage cheese or paneer / chenna. Once you see water turning slight green turn off the heat and drain the water through a cheese cloth. Now wash the chenna under running water to wash off the lemon flavor. Do not squeeze out the excess water with your hand just tie the sides of cheese cloth together and hang to enable the water to drain away.

Knead chenna well with your finger tips and knead until the cracks on chena starts to disappear. And the chenna becomes smooth. Now add sugar, saffron strands, pista powder, rose water, cardamom powder and again knead well. The art lies in kneading, the more you knead the less grainy texture at the end.

Now take a non stick pan and add this mixture and fry on low heat. Stir continuously till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Remove from heat. Leave this mixture for a minute to cool and then take a little mixture in your hand and roll it into a small ball or you can design them beautifully by Sandesh molds. Decorate the sandesh with some chopped pistanchios and saffron strands.