Bring milk to a boil in a thick walled pot. Turn down the heat and stir in the acidic curdling agent – yogurt or diluted lime juice, a little at a time.

The milk should curdle to form soft clumps. Keep stirring and then turn off the heat. Leave it for about 10 to 15 minutes. Line a mesh strainer with muslin cloth and strain the soft milk cheese or Channa/ Chenna.

Pull up the edges of the muslin cloth to cover the cheese. Place any small and somewhat heavy object on this o aid pressing and draining of excess liquid. Leave for about half an hour. Then unwrap and you should have still moist and somewhat firm cheese. You can use the strained liquid for kneading chappathi dough.

Place this Channa/ Chenna on a largish thali or shallow edged plate or dish. Working on a small portion at a time, use the heel of your palm, press down and rub the cheese into the plate, from one edge to the other. This makes the cheese smooth, soft and creamier. See the video in post above to understand this process better.

Run the fresh grated coconut in the blender a couple of times. Mix well this coconut, crumbled mawa/ khoya and the powdered jaggery with the Channa/ Chenna.

Put this mixture into a thick walled pan and cook it on low to medium heat, stirrig constantly. The mixture will soften as the jaggery melts. It should lose moisture, thicken to a dough like consistency aas it cooks and start leaving the sides of the pan.

Do not dry out the mixture. It should firm enough to shape and mould but melt in the mouth. Mix in the cardamom and take it off the heat. Let the mixture cool down.

Knead it again so it is smooth. Pinch off small balls of the dough mixture and press into greased moulds. Carefully loosen from the moulds with your fingers and transfer to a plate.

If you don’t have Sandesh moulds, you can roll the dough mixture into small 1 inch balls. You can also decorate them using cookie press moulds.

Serve the same day. Sandesh does refrigerate well for a couple ofdays at the most but is best eaten fresh.