Sandesh
A Bengali sweet of fresh chhena kneaded and cooked with sugar or date-palm jaggery, pressed into moulds.
Also: সন্দেশ, sondesh, sandes
Sandesh is one of the great sweets of Bengal. Fresh chhena is kneaded until smooth, then cooked briefly in a pan with sugar or nolen gur, the date-palm jaggery of winter, until it becomes a soft, fudge-like dough. It is shaped by hand or pressed into carved wooden or stone moulds in forms of shells, fish, flowers and leaves, and sometimes flavoured with cardamom, saffron, rose or pistachio. Soft sandesh, narampak, is moist and delicate; firm sandesh, karapak, is cooked longer and keeps better. Kolkata's sweet shops are famous for it, and it is given at weddings, births, festivals and almost any happy occasion.