Mavericks Memoir: Chenna Podo Recipe

I haven't been to my home in Orissa for a long long time and had been craving for this Chena Podo for quiet some time. No wife at home and another boring weekend staring at me, finally I decided to take up the cudgels and make myself some chena podo.... :)

A little history before the recipe. Chena Podo or Cheese Cake to my non-Oriya friends although an original traditional Oriya sweet was influenced by the Maratha rulers who ruled over Orissa for a short period of time. Traditionally it is fresh cheese which is cooked or rather baked after wrapping it in leaves and burying it underground. Hot coal or burning cowdung (in the olden days) used to be spread on top and the cheese used to bake as the sand around it got heated. Ingenious isn't it ???

Anyways the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

Milk - 2 Liters
Vinegar - 1/2 cup
Cashews - 50 gms
Raisins - 50 gms
Sugar - 1.5 cup
Semolina/Sooji - 25 gms
Ice cube- 5 cubes
Oil/Ghee - 2 teaspoons
Cardamon - 2
Baking Dish - 1

Now that the ingredient list is done, lets move on to the actual process of making this chena podo.

Cheese Making Processes:

Bring your 2 liters of milk to a boil
Add your vinegar into this still boiling milk. All the while stirring the milk.
As soon as you see that the cheese is getting separated from the milk, turn off the gas and immediately add the ice cubes. (The secret of ice cubes is that it stops the curdling process immediately, thereby leaving you soft cheese)
Drain all the excess water from the cheese and then hang the cheese for about 30 minutes so that all the excess water drains. Leave the cheese to cool down.

That concludes the cheese making process. Whatever you do, please do not use packaged Paneer, it will never be the same. Always use fresh cheese for the authentic taste and texture.

Fry the cashew nuts and raisins in the oil and set them aside
Soak the semolina or sooji in a little water. Drain the water and then add it to the cheese.
Add 1 cup of sugar to the cheese
Start kneading the cheese, semolina and sugar mixture. You should knead it until you can feel no more sugar crystals. Remember the more you knead, the better it becomes.
Crush the cardamons and add it to the cheese followed by the cashews and raisins and knead a little more.
Keep aside for 30 minutes for the flavors to all mingle around.

Take a rest as I am sure, all the kneading would have made you tired....lolz..... Everything's nearly done now and all that's left is to create a sugar syrup coating

Take the remaining half cup of sugar and add it to 1/4 cup of water and bring it to a boil. The sugar syrup should be a thick syrup, we don't want a runny syrup for this.
Grease the baking dish with as little oil/ghee as possible (Not necessary, but you can do it)
Spread the still hot syrup in the baking dish. Be careful as the syrup will be hard to spread but you have to do it as quickly as possible
Spread the kneaded cheese mixture on top of the thick sugar syrup in an even layer
If you have any extra syrup, then add at the top too (not necessary)
Cover the dish with a good quality aluminium foil and make 4 or 5 slits in the foil.

Phew!! All that is left now, is to bake this mixture.

Preheat your microwave to 250 degrees centigrade
Place the baking dish inside the microwave and bake it for at least 45 minutes
You can check at regular intervals by poking a tooth pick into the cheese mixture, if the tooth pick comes out clean, then that's a good sign that your baking is nearly complete.