One of the best-known dishes to come out of the eastern state of Odisha, the chhena poda (literally, ‘burnt chhena’ in Odia) is also sometimes referred to as the Indian cheesecake
Method
Make Chhena: Take full cream cow’s milk, almond milk and boil. Peel the soaked almonds and chop. Peel the cardamoms and grind them coarsely.
Switch off the flame after boiling the milk. Mix some water to lemon juice and add it to the milk in intervals. Stir and mix well until the whey separates from the milk.
Prepare Chhena Mash: Filter and strain the chhena separately. Mash the chhena well to make it soft, add semolina and sugar to it, stir and mix well. Keep it aside for 15 minutes to ferment.
After the fermentation time is up, mix 2 tablespoons of ghee, chopped almonds, chopped raisins and cardamom powder to the chhena mash.
Bake the Chhena Poda: Take a container, place banana leaf in it, grease it with ghee and pour the mixture.
Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes, then place the container in the oven and bake the chhena poda for 30 to 45 minutes. Remove it from the corners and flip it upside down.
Tap, remove it from the container and separate the banana leaf from it. Sprinkle the chhena poda with roasted almond flakes. Cut it into 10 serving portions.
