There is nothing to be alarmed about, despite its seemingly threatening name, the cham cham is far from being a bitter. A sweet dish popular in the Indian subcontinent, it is widely consumed and enjoyed by many all over the world.
What is it?
Cham Cham | Image Resource : indiamart.com
Basically it is made of curdled milk which is used to make chenna, after which it is rolled to form coagulated solids which can be shaped and sized according to one’s preferences, however most cham cham are usually shaped to be mostly cylindrical or oval shape which then proceeds to be cooked in sugar syrup where it acquires its texture of soft and spongy which melts into one’s mouth upon consumption, quite similar to the rasgulla.
You can have the sweet dish in several parts of the nation and even beyond the boundaries of the nation like Pakistan and Bangladesh who enjoys the sweet milk equally. Believed to have roots in Porabari, Tangail which can be found in modern Bangladesh somewhere in the 19th century. The popularity however extended beyond Bengal and soon made its way into the entire indian subcontinent where several variants to the sweet dish was created to satisfy the appetite of the people who consumed them.
Often garnished with special garnishing ingredients like kajus, pistas, rose petals and almonds to more exotic garnishing ingredients like coconuts, saffron and malai, each variant brings a new addition to the already impressive flavor of the cham cham. In more modern variants of the sweet dish, chocolate, butterscotch, strawberries and paan are often included in the mix creating whole new flavors in the process.
The experimenter behind cham cham
Due to its natural attributes the cham cham makes great for experimentation and thus have several new variants to its name aside of its more traditional variants.
Modern chefs in restaurants often experiment with new ingredients to bring out new unexpected dimensions of the cham cham, to spruce things up from its traditional perch, modern chefs often add in their own personal touch to reinvent the timeless classic and make it their own which when successful can earn one quite the fame and fortune.
Some examples of modern twist to the dish include padding in small amounts of liquor to the sweet dish like vodka or rum to the sugar syrup which is present to soak the sweet sponges in, quite the new way for getting buzzed, though make sure you are of legal age before experimenting such variants to avoid trouble. The possibilities are endless and due to its immense popularity it provides abundant space in experimenting and creating new variants of the well loved dish
Naren Patel 