Poush Sankranti special Chandrapuli

One more special day for us to celebrate, In West Bengal Makar Sankranti, in Assam Bihu, In Punjab Lohri, In Tamilnadu Pongal and the list goes on .  Almost every part of India celebrate this special auspicious day which is actually a Harvest Festival.  We Indians celebrate all the festival in fullest.  The specialty of Makar Sankranti in WB is, the farmers cut the new crops and from that rice (flour) they make some sweet dishes to celebrate. But different people make different kind of sweet dishes or Pithe to celebrate the special day. 

 I think almost in every house Maa, Grnad Maa’s are busy making the Pithe for this special day. My Grand Maa used to make so many different  kind of Pithe on the day and in almost all the dishes she used to add date palm Jaggery or Khejur er gur. The smell of the jaggery and coconut is just awesome. I tried to make one of her very special sweet Chandrapuli, which is really famous delicacy in WB. My maa only gave me all the special tips to make this Chandrapuli.

Milk, Khoya, coconut, Date Palm Jaggery are the main ingredients of this sweet dish. First time I prepared this so I am little scared also.

Ingredients:
For inner filling:
1.One cup shredded coconut. (make a paste with some water in a grinder)

 2.Two big cup thick milk.
3.Khoya: 50 gm.
4.Half cup sugar.
5.Three to four table spoon date palm jaggery.

For outer shell:
1.All-purpose flour: 150 gm.
2.Half cup shredded coconut.
3.Half cup sooji or semolina.
4.Three  table spoon sugar.
5.A pinch of salt (optional).
6.A pinch of cardamom powder.
7.One table spoon of ghee.
7.Ghee or sunflower oil for deep frying.

For sugar syrup:
1.Two cup of sugar.
2.One cup of water.
3.Few cardamom.

Prcoess:
For sugar Syrup:
Make thick sugar syrup with sugar and water. When its start boiling add the cardamom pieces. And keep it aside. 

To make the inner filling:

In a heavy bottomed vessel add the milk and the coconut paste and cook till the milk become half.

Now add the khoya, sugar, and date palm jaggery and cook till the mixture become dry and stick together.

For outer shell:

Mix all the ingredients together with some water and make one  dough.

Now make small balls with the dough and flatten each ball with your fingers in the shape of a bowl (the shell would be medium thin). Now add one spoon of filling mixture into the shell bowl and bring together both the edges and it will get the shape of half-moon.

Now deep fry them in medium heat in Ghee (but if you want you can fry them in sunflower oil also) till both the sides become golden brown and after that soaked them into the sugar syrup. Leave it their till the sugar stuck with the Chandrapuli’s like gum.

Serve hot or cold.

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