Junnu - జున్ను - Colostrum milk Cheese - Rich in Protiens - Indian Recipes - గాయత్రి వంటిల్లు

Take a jug and add colostrums milk, ordinary milk and grated jaggery. Mix the contents in jug till jaggery is fully dissolved. Take a wide bowl which is slightly deep and place a tea strainer in it. Pour the milk mixture into the strainer to strain any particles in jaggery or in colostrum milk. Sprinkle the coarsely ground black pepper and cardamom mixture on the milk.

Take a pressure cooker and add 200ml water in it. Place a lid in the pressure cooker. Place the milk bowl on the lid in the pressure cooker so that water in the pressure cooker does not touch the milk bowl. Now cover the pressure cooker with lid but remove the weight as we need to steam cook the milk to make junnu. Place the cooker on stove and steam cook on high flame. Once steam starts gushing through the vent, lower the flame to minimum and steam cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, switch off the flame and carefully remove the lid of pressure cooker. Observe that junnu is floating in water and on shaking the bowl observe that junnu is loose. Carefully remove the bowl from the pressure cooker and allow it to cool. After few minutes, observe that junnu absorbed all the water in which it is floating and appears to be firm. Allow junnu to cool completely before removing it from the bowl. Before removing junnu, run knife through the edges to loosen the junnu. Place a plate on the bowl and carefully invert the bowl into the plate to de mould the junnu. Turn once again into another plate for a nice presentation. Cut the junnu into pieces and serve it hot or cold as either way it tastes good. Junnu looks like a cake and tastes like a pudding. If it is difficult to remove junnu from the bowl in a single mould, then cut it into pieces in the bowl itself and then take out the pieces and serve. Have a bite of the soft textured junnu which tastes spicy, flavorful and sweet. Jaggery provides sweet, cardamom flavors and it tastes spicy because of black pepper. The flavors of jaggery, black pepper and cardamoms balances with each other and brings out the taste.

Points To Observe:

Setting of Junnu depends on the thickness of colostrums milk. So, before making junnu with entire colostrums milk, it is advisable to test with a small quantity of milk. If the colostrums milk is of first day then it would be thicker and we need to add more ordinary milk. If colostrums milk is two or three days old then we may add ordinary milk in 1:1 ratio. If colostrums milk is too old then add less amount of ordinary milk. So test with a small quantity, before making with the entire amount of colostrums milk.

Do not grind the cardamom seeds and black pepper to make a fine powder---the flavor of the coarsely crushed spices gives a nice taste while eating junnu.

At times it would be difficult to mix jaggery in normal temperature milk. So take grated jaggery into a blender and add ordinary milk and blend till it dissolves completely. Then add this jaggery mixed milk to the colostrum milk and make junnu.

We are creating an elevated platform by placing a lid in the pressure cooker so that while steaming milk, the water in pressure cooker would not spill into the milk.

Do not take a deep bowl to make junnu but take a wide mouthed bowl which is just slightly deep so that we get more pieces with spices on them. If a deeper bowl is used we get thick pieces.

If one wishes to serve junnu hot, then cut it into pieces when it is still there in the bowl. To remove the junnu from bowl it is important to cool the junnu to room temperature or else it breaks into uneven pieces.

Colostrums milk is milk of a cow or a buffalo during first five or six days of calving. Colostrum milk is rich in proteins when compared to ordinary milk. So as and when available bring colostrum milk and make this soft textured cheesy dessert which has tasty flavors of cardamom, black pepper and jaggery.

Test before you embark on the recipe :

Setting of Junnu depends on the thickness of colostrums milk. So, before making junnu with entire colostrums milk, it is advisable to test with a small quantity of milk. Usually for 1measure of colostrums milk we need I measure of ordinary milk. Here I have tested making junnu using 1/8cup of colostrums milk and 1/8cup of ordinary milk with 1:1 ratio. After making junnu observe the texture---if junnu is loose and watery then next time reduce amount of ordinary milk and if junnu is hard then increase the amount of ordinary milk to get the right texture. Here when I have tested making with 1:1 ratio of milks then it was perfect—so I have taken equal amount of colostrums milk and ordinary milk.

Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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