Malai Sandwich/Chop

It is Diwali time and on this festive occasion we prepare a lot of sweets and savories and celebrate with our family and friends.

Malai Sandwich or Malai Chop is a Bengali dessert made from Paneer/Chenna/Cottage cheese. I have also prepared khoa which serves as a patty. I have used an easy and quick method to prepare khoa. First we make flattened rasgullas, slit them into two halves and make the sandwich with khoa. Enjoy making this sweet for Diwali or any occasion.

Preparation time: 2 and 1/2 hours

Cooking time: 12 minutes

Yield: 15 to 18 sandwiches

Ingredients: 

• Freshly made Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) – 2 cups
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Water – 5 cups
• Cardamom pods – 4
• Saffron – 5 to 6 strings
• Rose flavored essence – 1 tsp
• Food color – red and yellow

Method of Preparation:

1. Prepare paneer from 1 and 1/2 liter of milk following the procedure from How to make Paneer?
2. Remove the hanging cloth with paneer and wrap it with a clean kitchen towel, rub and squeeze to remove the excess moisture.
3. Transfer paneer from cloth to a clean working surface. Reserve half a cup of paneer for khoa.
4. Divide paneer into three equal portions. Dilute a pinch of red and yellow food color in two different cups with a tsp of water each.
5. Add yellow color slowly to one portion of paneer and knead until you get a smooth and soft dough. Adjust the color according to your need.
6. Similarly add red color to the other portion and knead to a smooth and soft dough. Add a drop or two of red color to get the pink color.
7. Finally knead the last portion of paneer.
8. Divide each portion into equal parts and roll it between your palms to make a smooth ball and press it to become disk shape. Do not flatten it too much because we need to slice it into two halves.
9. Boil 5 cups of water in a big sauce pan and add 1 cup of sugar.
10. When sugar dissolves and starts boiling, add the paneer balls slowly,cover it with lid and let it cook over medium heat for 6 minutes.
11. Turn off heat and let it rest for sometime. Remove paneer balls from the sugar syrup and transfer it to a plate.
12. If you have a small sauce pan, you can cook them in two batches.  After removing the first batch you can use the same sugar syrup for the second batch.

Preparation of Quick Khoa:

1. Heat a pan and melt butter. Add milk and milk powder and crumble paneer.
2. Mix well and keep stirring over medium heat until it starts thickening.
3. Add sugar and mix well. If you are using sweetened milk powder, adjust the sugar level accordingly.
4. Keep stirring the mixture until it thickens and starts leaving the sides of the pan.
5. When you get the consistency of khoa from which you can make small balls, turn off the stove.
6. Let it cook and divide it into equal portions and make the same number of balls like paneer balls and flatten it.