Sitabhog

Pressed into threads that look like rice, with small jamun through it.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee), dairy (khoa), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

• 1.5 litres whole milk
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 120 g rice flour
• 400 g granulated sugar
• 250 ml water
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 20 small gulab jamun, or 150 g khoa to make them
• ghee for frying the jamun

Method

1. IT IS PRESSED INTO THREADS THAT LOOK LIKE RICE, WITH SMALL JAMUN THROUGH IT. Its article describes the finished thing rather than the steps, and the description is the instruction: sitabhog LOOKS LIKE WHITE RICE OR VERMICELLI MIXED WITH SMALL PIECES OF GULAB JAMUN, is MADE FROM COTTAGE CHEESE (ALSO KNOWN AS CHHENA IN BENGALI), RICE FLOUR AND SUGAR, and OFTEN GIVES THE APPEARANCE OF PULAO, WHICH IS ALBEIT SWEET IN TASTE. A dish of sweet rice that contains no rice.
2. SO THE THREADS ARE EXTRUDED, NOT ROLLED. A chhena and rice-flour dough pushed through a sev press or a coarse-holed ricer straight into warm syrup, in short lengths. They set as grains.
3. MAKE THE CHHENA AND DRAIN IT WELL. Milk split with lemon juice, strained, hung twenty minutes, then kneaded smooth.
4. WORK THE RICE FLOUR IN DRY AND KEEP THE DOUGH STIFF. A hundred and twenty grams into the chhena from a litre and a half. It should hold its shape when pressed and not stick to your palm.
5. THE SYRUP IS THIN AND WARM WHEN THE THREADS GO IN. Sugar and water boiled four minutes only. A heavy syrup glues the threads into a block.
6. PRESS, CUT, AND LET THEM SIT TEN MINUTES. Press directly over the pan and snip the strands at two or three centimetres with scissors. Ten minutes in the syrup is enough to cook the flour through.
7. LIFT THEM OUT AND SPREAD THEM TO COOL SEPARATELY. Left in the pan they fuse. Spread on a tray they stay as grains.
8. FOLD THE SMALL JAMUN THROUGH AT THE END. Fried khoa balls the size of a pea, syruped, scattered in. Its article credits Khettranath Nag of Bardhaman with the sweet and with mihidana, which is on its own page, and records that both were served to Lord Curzon on his visit.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes