Chhena Tarkari

As this is the first post of my blog, I am going to start with a typical Oriya dish. It’s called "Chenna Tarkari". It’s like a Paneer Curry but little different.

Ingredients:

For Chenna:

5 liter milk

1 table spoon lemon juice / vinegar

For Gravy:

2 potatoes

1 big onion 

3 pods garlic

1 tomato  

1/2 inch ginger  

1 teaspoon cumin seed  

1 teaspoon coriander seed  

2 bay leaves  

1/2 inch cinnamon  

2 cardamoms   

3 cloves  

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder  

1 and a quarter table spoon gram flour  

200 ml any refined cooking oil  

Coriander leaves   

Chili powder to taste  

Salt  

Method to prepare chenna kofta:

Chenna is like a cottage cheese which is not as hard as paneer. To make chenna heat the milk to boiling point. Add the lemon juice/ vinegar and switch off the flame. Allow the milk to curdle for 10-15 mins.

Now strain the curdled milk in a muslin cloth and hang it for some time. Squeeze out the water. Don’t take out all the water like paneer; the chenna should be soft but not very watery. 

 Take the chenna. Add gram flour (besan) and knead it nicely. Make small balls and flatten them like kofta. Deep fry the koftas in oil and keep aside. (Do not add salt to the kofta).

Gravy preparation:

Grind the dry spices (cinnamon, cardamom and cloves), onion, garlic and ginger to a smooth paste. 

Cut the potatoes into the shape of cubes. Fry the potatoes and keep aside.

Heat oil in a wok. Add the ground masala, bay leaves, turmeric and chili powder. When the oil separates from masala add tomatoes. Reduce heat and stir till the tomato becomes tender. Now add the potato cubes and salt.

After sauteing for a minute add water and bring it to a boil ensuring the potatoes are cooked. Now add the kofta and simmer for a minute. Garnish with coriander leaves before serving.

 If you don’t eat onion and garlic then just do a slight change in gravy preparation. Grind cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, cashew and ginger. Add little asafoetida.

And if you don’t have cashews in house try using groundnut and sesame seeds they provide same taste as cashews. I do this when I am out of cashews. Even you can try with watermelon seeds (magaz).