Nikuti is one of the lesser-known Bengali Sweet from India's eastern state of West Bengal. Similar to the recipes of Pantua and Chanar Jilipi, nikuti recipe also needs fresh cottage cheese of cow's milk mixed with semolina and flour. Small oblong-shaped dumplings are made out of the dough which is deep-fried before soaking in a simple syrup.
Bring the milk to a rolling boil first. Once it is there, add the juice of a lemon into the milk. Here, I have used 600ml of Cow's Milk and that required the juice of one golf ball-sized lemon. Add the juice gradually. Once you see that the cheese has curdled and whey left underneath is pale green in colour, stop adding the juice.
600 ml Cow's Milk, 1 Lemon
Turn off the heat. Take a cheesecloth and lay it on top of a sieve. Now, pour the contents of the milk pan into it. I would suggest you collect the whey underneath the sieve, as it is rich in nutrients.
Gather the ends of the cheesecloth and let it sit on the sieve overnight to get rid of the moisture. If you live in a colder region, you may leave it on your kitchen counter, otherwise, keep it in the refrigerator.
To make Sugar Syrup
Take sugar and water in a sauce pan and gently bring it to a boil. Keep stirring so that the sugar is dissolved completely. Once you see that there are no more sugar crystals left, switch off the heat. Drop in the cardamom pods and stir.
1 cup Sugar, 1 cup Water, 1 Green Cardamom Pod
To make Nikuti
Take the chena or cottage cheese in a mixing bowl and knead it for 8-10 minutes to make it smooth and supple
Add the rest of the ingredients in it like All-Purpose Flour, Semolina, Milk Powder and Baking Soda and knead it again
2 tbsp All Purpose Flour, 1 tbsp Semolina or Sooji, 2 tbsp Milk Powder, ½ tsp Baking Soda
Add Water to make the dough moist. It should be kind of a sticky dough as shown here. It took somewhere around 4 tablespoons of water to get the perfect dough.
4 tbsp Water
Add a teaspoon of Ghee to help you work with the dough
1 tsp Ghee
Divide the dough into 18 equal portions. Take each portion and roll it between your greased palms to make smooth round balls. Then press them into a cylindrical shape. Press the ends more to make the shape shown here
Now, fry them in oil/ghee on very low heat. Once they turn brown, take them out and dunk them in Sugar Syrup. Let them soak for 30 minutes or so before serving.