Porabari Chom Chom

I am totally in love with this chom chom from Bangladesh. I had it when my husband had been to Bangladesh and had got this sweet dish for me from there. Greedy me, wanted to have more so tried making it at home. Some net search and the result was yum. 

This chom chom is very famous and were made at Porabari Tangail Bangladesh in earlier days. Now it’s know world wide. The taste is divine. It’s different from the normal chom chom we get in India. The actual process takes a very long time up to 3 to 4 hours and it naturally gets a golden colour. But to reduce the time, I have tried it differently and have caramelised the sugar first and then added it to the sugar syrup later to speed up the cooking process to almost an hour. It takes a long time to cook but it is worth the effort.

For the Caramel Syrup

Ingredients

1/4 cup Sugar

1 cup of Water

Method

Take a pot, add sugar and continuously stir on a low flame to make the caramel syrup. Keep a eye on the syrup as it can get burn very fast. As the colour of the sugar syrup changes and becomes caramel, add a cup of water and let it continue to simmer on low flame for a minute.  Remove it and keep it aside.

For the Sugar Syrup

Ingredients

2 cups Sugar

5 cups of Water

Method

In a wok, add the water and sugar, let the sugar dissolve and let the sugar syrup continue to cook till we make the chenna balls.

For the Chom chom 

Ingredients

250 grams Homemade Chenna / Cottage Cheese mashed

1 tbsp Fine Semolina

2 tbsp Flour

1/2 tsp Baking powder

3 tbsp Milk powder + 2 tbsp dry Mawa mix together for garnishing

Sugar syrup

Caramel syrup

Method

Till the sugar syrup is being made. Take the mashed chenna, add the semolina, flour and baking powder. Mix and knead it very well till all the ingredients combines and binds well. With the help of the palm rub the mixture against the flat surface. Knead it well for 5 minutes. Take lime size portion and give it a longish oval shape. Repeat the process till all the chenna dough is used up. Add the chenna balls into the sugar syrup. Cover and let it cook for 10 minutes. Heat up the caramel syrup. Open the lid of the wok, now gradually add the caramel syrup into the sugar syrup and stir it. Let it continue to cook for at least an hour or till the sugar syrup becomes clear and the chom chom gets its colour. In between the cooking time once in a while stir the sugar syrup and remove the impurities that has formed on the sides of the wok. Once done, switch  off the flame and add 1/2 cup cold water. Let the chom chom  sit in  the sugar syrup till the sugar syrup completely cools down. Remove the chom chom from the sugar syrup and roll it in the milk powder and mawa crumb. Enjoy the  chom chom.