Sandesh (Bengali Sweet made out of Cottage Cheese)

Kolkata has kilos of milk sweets to offer to everyone’s palate. As I had written in my previous blog, you cannot have one favourite sweet if you are in Bengal. This is one place where you find every Kolkata n’s first morsel is a sweet. The man of the house is generally seen coming back from the market with the quintessential fish, the Gondhoraj Lime (looks somewhat like a Kaffir Lime) which has a heady smell and the packet of sweet.
Each Bengali’s meal is actually incomplete without a sweet. There are about a zillion varieties of Sandesh you can find in Kolkata alone. Each Sandesh is made with various flavours and shapes. The word Sandesh means a message. This sweet is light and creamy and since its made with curdled milk, its quite palate cleansing. Being milk sweet, it might not last long and needs to be consumed in a day or two.

Ingredients:
Fresh Paneer (Cottage Cheese) – 250 grams
Powdered Sugar or Sugar free- 150 grams
Rosewater- 1 tsp
Cardamom Powder- ½ tsp
Sultanas or Kishmish (dried Grapes) for garnish



Method:
In a bowl, mash the Paneer and the powdered sugar. Place the mixture over low flame and stir constantly to avoid lumps.
When the mixture solidifies, take it off the gas and splash the rose water on it and stir.
Add the Cardamom powder and mix well.
Now divide the mixture into several portions of the required size and flatten them between the palms of your hands to give the desired shapes.

You can even use moulds of various designs.




Place a Sultana/Kishmish for garnishing. Let it set for 2-3 hours in the fridge, before serving.