Aam Sandesh/Mango Sandesh Recipe: Mango flavored cottage cheese based Bengali sweet
Sandesh [“shon-daesh”] is a sweet treat that can be seen at any Indian celebration in a Bengali household. Bengali cuisine comes from the present day Bangladesh as well West Bengal (an Indian province). Some people in the region of Dhaka call it Pranahara (literally, heart ‘stealer’) which is a softer kind of sandesh, made with mawa and the essence of curd 🙂
This is a mango flavored Sandesh as I added mango pulp to it 🙂 I never imagined that I could make Bengali sweets at home as they look so difficult to make. But Trust me this recipe is so easy and turned out awesome. Also I want to to give credit to my Bengali blogger friend Dolphia for her trational bengali food posts. She inspires me to try Bengali cuisine 🙂 She blogs at Story of Cooks.
Also today is Mahalaya..Mahalaya marks the start of the ‘Devipaksha’ and the end of the ‘Pitri-paksha’. The traditional six day countdown to Mahasaptami starts from Mahalaya. Goddess Durga visits the earth for only four days but seven days prior to the Pujas, starts the Mahalaya.
The Aam Sandesh, a Norom Paak Sandesh, true to its name turned out super soft and just melted away. The mango flavour come out just strong enough to confirm its presence.
Recipe Source: ambrosiasoulfulcooking
Mango Sandesh 
Ingredients: Make 6 pieces
1 liter full cream milk
½ cup curd (1 used the standard 240 ml cup)
¾ cup mango pulp (peel, chop, puree the mango and strain the pulp)
3 tablespoons sugar
Method
Boil the milk. Reduce the heat.
Add curd and stir till the milk curdles and green whey separates.
Turn off the heat after two minutes.
Put the curdled milk in the muslin cloth and squeeze out excess water. Hang the muslin bag for fifteen minutes. The cottage cheese is ready for use.
Transfer cottage cheese to a plate. Mash it well. Knead it with the heel of your palm till it becomes smooth.
Take mango pulp in a thick bottomed steel wok. Add sugar. When sugar dissolves, add mashed cottage cheese. Mix well.
Cook on low flame stirring continuously.
Mixture starts turning thick. After about 10 to 15 minutes, it begins to move like a big lump when stirred. Turn off the heat.
Let the mixture cool. Or else you can refrigerate it for 15 minutes.
When it is comfortable enough to handle, shape into small balls, roughly the size of a walnut. Add mango pulp in center.
