Bhappa sandesh

Growing up in Calcutta as I did, Sandesh has always been a favourite sweet of mine. There was an outlet of Sweet Bengal near our previous house, so it was easy for me to indulge myself. Somewhere along the line, the kids developed a taste for Sandesh too, and we ended up buying it once or twice a month. You do not get milk sweets near our new house, but to be honest, we are so busy exploring what we do have, that none of us has got a chance to really miss it.
I would not have made sandesh today, if not for a combination of events. I almost always make a sweet on Dussera day, but was just not able to get my act together yesterday. When I came to know that in some parts of the country, they were continuing to celebrate the festival today, I wondered if I should sneak a sweet in. At the same time, the milkman hadn't seen my "No Milk" note this morning, and had delivered the milk. Since I wasn't expecting it, the milk had been out for nearly five hours before I got it in, and I thought it sensible to make paneer or channa out of it. A half-forgotten memory of a step-by-step recipe by Jayanta Das on Indian Food Freak stirred in my mind, and before I knew it, I was committed to making Bhappa Sandesh.
It is a really simple recipe, and the results are fantastic. Definitely something I am going to make more often.
PS- this was a promise I kept- more pictures here

1 litre milk
2 tbsp curds, beaten
juice of 1 lime
100 gms powdered sugar
couple of drops rosewater
couple of drops red food colouring

Boil the milk, with the beaten curds. Just when it starts to boil, add the juice of one full lime. Once the whey separates, hang the cheese in a cloth for about half an hour. Wash it in cold water for the aroma of lemon to go away. Leave it like this for another 30 minutes.
Knead the powdered sugar well with the cheese for around 10 minutes. Add the rosewater and the colouring, and mix so it is well incorporated.
Take a steel box, grease it with ghee and place in the cheese covering the edges nicely. Place the box in a pressure cooker, pour water till half the level of the tiffin box upper edge. Cover the lid without the whistle and leave the cooker at mid flame for 20 minutes.
Take the box and overturn it on a plate. Leave it to cool at room temperature and then refrigerate it for an hour.
Cut into nice square shapes, and garnish with rose petals if you have them.