Petha Sandesh
Petha Sandesh
Petha Sandesh is a delicious layered Indian dessert recipe combining two of India’s favourite mithai/sweets namely ‘Petha’ from Uttar Pradesh and ‘Sandesh’ from Bengal.
It is a simple layered dessert and delicious when served cold. Petha is a translucent looking, soft, chewy and candy-like, and super sweet. Petha is made from ash gourd vegetable, also known as winter melon or white pumpkin. Sandesh is made of curdled milk and lightly sweetened. The two together perfectly balances the flavours and taste.
This dessert was often prepared by my mother in my childhood days and is my all-time favourite! Life moves on, but memories always stay in the heart forever. That beautiful quaint street, the yummy, delicious comfort food cooked by my mother and the taste still lingers on!
I like the simplicity of this recipe as it doesn’t need many ingredients and is full of delicious flavours. It is a pleasure to share my mother’s recipe!
Ingredients
1 litre full fat milk
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons castor sugar
2 teaspoons finely chopped unsalted almond
2 teaspoons finely chopped unsalted pistachios
Few saffron strands
10-12 petha pieces
Directions
Pour the milk into a large pan and bring it to boil over medium heat. Once the milk has boiled, pour in the lemon juice. Give it a stir, and you should see the milk curdle immediately. If you do not, you can add 1 more tablespoon of lemon juice. Let the contents cool for 5 to 10 minutes.
Strain the milk curds through a strainer. Rinse the milk curdle under cold water to wash out the lemon juice.
Squeeze off the excess water from the paneer. We need moist paneer so make sure there is no excess whey or water in the paneer.
Add sugar, saffron, almond and pistachios to the squeezed paneer and knead it until smooth with no lumps.
Rinse the petha in water 2-3 times to drain out the excess sugar from the petha.
Grate the petha using a grater.
Layer 2-3 tablespoons of grated petha halfway up a serving glass and level using a spoon. I have used a short glass.
Layer 2-3 tablespoons of prepared sandesh on top of the petha.
Garnish with some chopped almond and pistachios. Keep the petha Sandesh in the fridge for 2-3 hours to chill it.
Serve petha Sandesh straight out of the fridge!
