Bengali Chanar Jalebi / Paneer Jalebi / Paneer Sweets

Finally am here with my SNC Event post, a brain child of Divya Pramil of You Too Can Cook in which We have two teams, the South team and the North team and every month one of the team member (both South & North) will challenge the other with an authentic recipe of their team. Being a South Indian am obviously belong to the South Team.  This month, On behalf of North Team, Chandrani challenged our South Team members with an Bengali Delight, Chanar Jalebi, an authentic sweet prepared on festive occasions. The jalebi's were made use Channa/Paneer more or less like Gulab Jamun but little rich and has great taste. This is the first time am hearing this name, tried and tasted it for the first time. Thank You Chandrani for this wonderful recipe we really loved it. Now off to the recipe..

Ingredients

1. Milk       4 cups (full fat milk/whole milk)
2. Lemon Juice     from 2 lemons
3. Cardamom Powder    1/4 tsp
4. Baking Powder         1/4 tsp
5. Milk    1-2 tsp
6. All Purpose flour/Maida    2-3 tsp
7. Oil           to deep fry
8. Pistachios       4-5 for garnish

For Sugar Syrup

1. Sugar         1 cup
2. Water        1/2 cup
3. Saffron strands   a few
4. Cardamom        2-3 pods crushed

Method

• Boil milk in a heavy bottom pan, once it starts boiling add the lemon juice. Keep Stirring, until the milk starts to curdle and let the whey water become clear. 
• Line a sieve with a cheese or cotton cloth. Pour the curdled milk into it. Wash the Strained Channa/ Paneer under running water to remove the strains of lemon juice added. 
• Place the sieve on a bowl and set it aside for 30 minutes until all the water has been drained out. Remove the paneer from the cloth and transfer it to a plate. 
• Add flour, baking powder, cardamom powder, milk and knead well to a smooth dough. 
• After that cover it with a cloth/cling wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes(this way it helps you to get a smooth & perfectly shaped rolls/jalebis).
• Meanwhile prepare sugar syrup, in a wide pan take Sugar, Water, saffron and cardamom pods and bring it to boil. Let it boil in a low flames until the syrup becomes little sticky. 
• After that switch of the stove and set aside.
• Now start shaping the jalebis, Pinch small balls out of the dough and roll the ball into a long thick rope. Shape the rope into a pretzel or just a swirl. 
• Do repeat the same for all the dough and keep shaped jalebis ready.
• Heat oil in panto deep fry the jalebis. Once the oil get heated, add shaped dough one be one and deep fry in medium heat until it turns to nice golden brown.
• Then remove it from the oil using slotted spatula and add it to the warm sugar syrup.
• Let it rest for 2-3 hours. 
• That's it..Delicious Chanar Jalebi ready to relish.

Notes:

For easy & quick method, u can also try this chanar jalebi using store bought paneer. If it crumbles just add couple of tbsp of milk and flour and knead well until u get smooth dough.

Instead of lemon juice you can also use 1-2 tbsp curd to curdle the milk.