Sandesh- A Bengali Sweet

                    Sandesh

                               by Asis.

 Sandesh is a sweet from Bengal which can be eaten as a dessert or snack. The main ingredient is ‘Chana’ or cottage cheese which was brought by the Portuguese.

The Portuguese came to Bengal around 1500s and began with Joan Coelho. Now getting back to Sandesh, unsold milk usually was converted into milk products or butter cream. The Portuguese settled in Hooghly and learned from the Portuguese, the art of making cheesy sweets.

Granulated sugar was introduced to Bengal by Tong Achew, who came to Hooghly, West Bengal some 300 years Ago. In Bengal the Portuguese introduced three types of Cheese:

1. The Pungent Bandel Cheese.

2.Channa

3.Bangladeshi Ponir.

Bangladeshi Ponir is not Paneer from India. It is cottage cheese which has a pungent aroma.

The name Sandesh is mentioned in the medieval Bengali literature but the ingredients are not known.  Thanks to Indrajit Lahiri who writes history of Sandesh in much details.

History:

The current Sandesh was made by these confectioners:

1.Bhola Maira

2.Bhim Nag

3.Grish Chandra Dey.

Usually if you ask people in Bengal, what kind of food this Sandesh is? The reply would be, hey it is a sweet meat. The American visitor might think:” What the hell is Sweetmeat? How can a meat be sweet? Well, this India or South East Asia, anything is possible”. I being a Bengali had the same problem. This variety of sweets is called “Misti” in Bengali. This variety does not exist in Europe, USA or middle East anyway. You might have equivalents not exactly a translation. So, in the long, you can call it type of a dessert.

Now coming back to equivalent of a Sandesh, might be a cheese cake. In Bengal, people love mistis.  Rosogollas especially, another type of Sweetmeat. Do not go to find an equivalent because you cannot. It is like trying to find an equivalent of a Pizza in Bengali culture.  You don’t have Pizza since it was invented in GAETA, Italy :997 CE