Chhena Tarkari
Chhena Tarakari is a chhena (cottage cheese) based popular side dish from odia cuisine. Any special celebration or during festival, this is a common affair in the menu. The tarkari can be prepared with or without onion-garlic.
Ingredients
- 1½ cup Chhena
- 1 tsp Besan (gram flour)
- 2 no. Potato (boiled)
- 2 no. Green chili (finely chopped)
- 1 no. Tomato (roughly chopped)
- ¼ cup Tomato puree
- 1 inch Ginger
- 1-2 no. Whole red chili
- 2 no. Cardamom pod
- 1 no. Bay leaf
- 1 inch Cinnamon stick
- 3-4 no. Clove
- ¼ tsp Cumin seed
- 1 tsp Garam Masala powder
- ½ tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Red chili powder
- 1 tbsp Coriander powder
- Oil as needed
- Salt as needed
- Water as needed
Instructions
- In a blender jar, put the roughly chopped tomatoes along with cloves, cinnamon stick, ginger, whole red chili.Make a smooth paste without adding water. Keep aside.
- Take the soft chhena (homemade or store bought) in a mixing bowl and gently crumble it.
- Add gram flour (besan) and knead to make a smooth and soft dough.
- Then add salt, finely chopped green chilies and knead again till everything well incorporated.
- Take 1 tbsp of the dough and shape into ball and then slightly flatten to give a tikki shape. Here I have given the heart shape.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan to shallow fry the chhena tikki.
- Make some more tikkis from the dough. Keep aside.
- Shallow fry the chhena tikkis in batches till light brown from all the sides.
- Transfer the tikkies to a plate lined with parchment paper.
- Now take the boiled potatoes, slice into 1 inch thick and then cut into heart shapes using a heart mold. This step is optional, I did this to match the chhena tikki shape. Usually chhena are shaped as 1 inch balls or tikkis and potatoes are cut into cubes.
- Shallow fry the potatoes. This step is optional too.
- Keep aside the fried potatoes in a plate.
- Now add 1 tbsp oil into the same pan.
- Add 1 cardamom pod, cumin seeds and sauté.
- When the seeds start to splutter, add in the tomato paste.
- Sauté over low heat for 1-2 minutes.
- Add turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, coriander powder and tomato puree.
- Mix everything and allow the whole masala to cook well.
- When the oil starts to ooze out from the masala paste, pour 1-2 cups warm water (depends upon the consistency of the chhena curry, add less or more as per the need).
- Give a stir and then put the fried potatoes.
- Cover the pan and cook till potatoes are well done.
- After that, gently add all the fried chhena and cook for 1 minute without covering the pan.
- Soon the chhena tikkis'll absorb the masala and swell a bit.
- Turn off the heat.
- Crush the other cardamom pod and sprinkle over the curry.
- Serve this chhena tarkari hot as a side dish with roti or rice !
Notes
- Besan acts as a binding agent. This can be omitted. Just make one tikki and shallow fry. If it doesn't break, then it is ok. Else add besan and knead again.
- Adding green chilies to the chhena dough is completely optional. My family like this way.
- Always knead the chhena to a soft dough, but also do not over kneading the chhena.
- I have used homemade chhena. Do check the recipe of making chhena at home.
- The chhena tikkies can be shallow fried or even deep fried.
- Frying the potatoes is completely optional.
- Adjust the spiciness as desired.
- The chhena tikkis become soft after cooking in the gravy. So be careful while serving, else they break.
- This recipe can be prepared with or without onion-garlic. Here the version is without onion-garlic one.