Nolen gur er Sondesh...

As you all know how much I love winter, given I do not have to shovel a snow covered path to get into my car. The pleasurable winter in Kolkata is most welcoming, not only does it give us a break from the humid heat we experience most of the year, but it also offers an array of different vegetables, fruits and specialties like nolen gur or date palm jaggery. If you haven’t tasted nolen gur or khejur gur or date palm jaggery then you are missing something in your life. The complex layered taste of this jaggery is difficult to express in words. It has a caramel, burnt taste with subtle sweetness.

It's a ritual in every Bengali households to make desserts like pithe, payesh, etc using date palm jaggery during winter. Or you can simply enjoy the jaggery with some hot roti or parathas or even with some dudh bhat (boiled rice and milk). All the sweet shops are flooding with varieties of sweets made using nolen gur, sondesh being the most popular one.

Sondesh is a traditional Bengali dessert made from freshly made cottage cheese or chana. There are countless varieties of sondesh available, depending on its flavour, shape or the main ingredients used for making the sondesh. During winter one can find a very special variety of sondesh on every sweet shops in Bengal, the nolen gur or date palm jaggery sondesh. 

Date palm trees grow everywhere in West Bengal, as the climate is favourable for their growth. To collect the sap from the date palm tree, the tappers climb the tree, cut the end of the flower cluster and hang a clean container under that to collect the sap that drips out. The seasonal date palm jaggery is processed from the sap of date palm trees and the sap is cooked to make the caramel flavoured brown syrup called the jaggery.

My father used to get the best quality of nolen gur from a specific shop, but now I can get the best quality nolen gur or date palm jaggery delivered to my home, thanks to Kwidi.in.

I made some nolen gur er sondesh using this jaggery from Kwidi. If you are in India and want to taste some good quality date palm jaggery then you can trust Kwidi. I have tasted date palm jaggry from various places and I can guarantee this is an authentic source. 

I do have a norom paak er gur er sondesh recipe, you can check that here.

Ingredients to make Nolen Gur er Sondesh:

• Milk: 2 ltr
• Lime juice or vinegar: 3-4 tbsp
• Date palm jaggery: 1/3 cup
• Ghee to grease

(I have used full fat milk for this recipe)

Steps of making Nolen Gur er Sondesh:

1. Take milk in a heavy bottom pan and let it boil. As the milk boils add the lime juice or vinegar and stir well. The milk will curdle.
2. Line a colander with cheese cloth and strain the curdled milk, this is freshly made chana or cottage cheese. Wash the chana under cold water to wash off any smell of lime juice or vinegar.
3. Let the chana rest in the cheese cloth to drain off excess water.
4. Take the chana on a large plate or on the kitchen counter and knead for 12-15 mins or till no lumps are there.
5. Grease a non stick pan with few drops of ghee, add the chana and jaggery, cook over low heat till the mixture starts to leave the sides of the pan. Keep stirring the mixture.
6. Let the mixture cool down a bit, grease the moulds with ghee. Take the mould on your left hand and take a round ball of chana mixture  on your right hand, and press the mixture on the mould to cover it. Take time to shape it evenly. Then take it out from the mould gently. If you do not have any moulds then you shape it into rounds, or cut into squares or use cookie cutters to shape the sondesh.

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