There is a wonderful tale behind this royal dessert. Scholars trace its creation centuries ago to a marriage alliance between the royal kingdoms of Krishnanagar and Burdwan, two areas within West Bengal.
A princess from Krishnanagar was married to a Burdwan prince, and when she became pregnant, she lost her appetite and refused to eat. The only thing she craved was langcha, a fried sweetmeat made from cottage cheese dipped in sugary syrup, from her kingdom.
However, she couldn’t remember the name and called the dessert langcha, as the artisan who created the dish walked with a limp (in Bengali, langchano means to limp). The ruler of Krishnanagar searched for the artisan and once he was found, asked him to settle in Burdwan with the promise of land. He accepted and prepared this delicacy for the
princess and her new kingdom.
Today, both Burdwan and Krishnanagar take credit for the creation of this delicious dessert.
Ingredients
Home made cottage cheese (chena): 200 gms
Solidified milk (Khoya/Mawa): 100 gms
Flour (Moida): 2 tbsp
Green cardamom (powdered): 4-5
Oil for frying
Ghee: 1 tbsp
Baking powder: 1/4 tsp
For the sugar syrup:
Sugar: 2 cups
Green cardamom: 6-7
Preparation
1.Take a heavy bottom pan, add water and sugar to make the sugar syrup. Keep the heat to medium and stir well. As the sugar dissolves completely and it boils, reduce the heat. If you see any scums, discard that. Those are impurities. Break few green cardamoms and add to the syrup.
2. I used store bought khoya, so I first grated that for easy use, as it come as a hard cake. Mash the grated khoya till smooth on a clean dry plate or on the kitchen slab.
3.Make chena by curdling milk with lime juice. Strain the chena and drain the water. Mash it well.
4.Mix together the khoya, chena, ghee, baking powder, cardamom powder and 2 tbsp flour. Use your palm to mix all these together. Mix until there is no lumps and the mixture does not stick to your finger. The dough will be grease. You will find your hand and the plate or kitchen slab quite greasy.
5. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and rest it for 10 mins. Make equal size round balls out of the dough. Now shape them into long cylinders, the shape of langcha. Roll the dough with your palms on a plate or kitchen slab to shape them evenly. Make sure that the diameter is even and smooth.
6. Take a kadai or pan, heat oil. When the oil is hot remove the pan from the heat, wait for few minutes (1-2min). Add the langcha. Return the pan to heat, keep the heat to lowest possible temperature. Fry the langchas evenly till you get a dark brown colour. The langcha will tend to float so keep them dipped in oil for a even cooking. But do not over cook or burn them. As you will fry the langcha they will increase in size so either use a large pan or fry in small batches.
7. Take out the fried langcha on a paper towel lined plate, keep there for 30 sec and dip them into hot sugar syrup. The syrup must be hot.
8. Let it soak for 1 hr. You can keep them in the syrup or you can take them out of the syrup and store as dry langcha. But I prefer mine to store in the sugar syrup.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – Chitrangada Kundu
Chitrangada hails from India and her passion for cooking led to the creation of Color and Spices blog, where she shares diverse recipes. Coming from a Bengali family, she mainly cooks Bengali cuisine, but as she does not like to eat similar dishes on a daily basis, Chitrangada experiments with various cuisines.