Cham Cham (Chum Chum)

Cham Cham (Chum chum) is popular Bengali, soft and spongy sweet, made from moist and fresh paneer. It can be served plain, garnished with nuts, or coated with dessicated coconut, or even soaked in freshly prepared malai. Cham Cham comes in a variety of colors ranging from white, pink and yellow and even green. It is typically shaped like an oval and covered with coconut shavings or powder. It is similar to making rasmalai and rasgula. Heavenly deilcious! Chum Chum is a traditional sweet treat during festivals in India,

How to make Chum Chum:

How to make Paneer:

1. Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy-bottom pan over low heat, then reduce the heat and let simmer gently for a few minutes.
2. Add the lemon juice, stirring constantly until the milk starts to curdle.
3. Drain the mixture through cheesecloth-lined strainer then rinse the contents of the strainer under cold running water.
4. Gather up the corners of the cheesecloth, tie them together, and squeeze gently to extract any moisture.
5. Hang the wrapped cheese for 1 hour to drain.

Sugar syrup:

1. Add water into saucepan. Bring it to a boil. Add sugar, cardamoms and cook for about 5 minutes. The water shoud be reduced to half and the mixture of water and sugar should be thick but not to thick.
2. Add the saffron and lemon juice and mix.
3. Keep aside.

Finally make chum chums:

1. Knead the paneer properly. If you use store bought paneer blend it in the blender until it becomes soft.
2. Now, if you use chum chum in different color add the food color an mix well.
3. Then make small oval shaped balls.
4. Now, add the ovall balls to the sugar syrup and let them soak it. Simmer for a few minutes. Turn off and let chum chum rest in syrup for 5 minutes
5. Finally, take out the chum chum from syrup and garnish with desiccated coconut, chopped almonds and pistachios.

Tip:

• Knead the paneer properly, ortherwise chum chum will fall apart when put into the syrup.
• Do not overcook chum chum as they can become hard and rubbery.