To prepare chenna - Bring milk to a boil. Add the sour curd and wait for a few minutes till the milk solids separate from whey. The whey should have a clear appearance at this point. If not add more curd and boil for another 5 minutes.
Once all the solids separate, strain the chenna using a fine cloth or even a strainer with very fine mash. Allow to stand for sometime till excess water is drained.
Around the same time, dissolve the sugar in 2 cups of water and bring to a boil on medium flame. Crush the cardamon and add to the vessel. We need a very light sugar syrup, so it takes about 7-8 minutes. Remove from flame just before it reaches a stringy consistency.
Take the chenna in a vessel/mixing bowl and add the maida and powdered sugar. Crumble and knead the chenna to remove lumps and it just comes together into a soft dough (takes about 5-6 mins, do not overdo the kneading). Pinch small lumps out of the dough and shape into balls. These balls can either be shallow fried or deep fried.
Heat sufficient oil/ghee in a wok. Put one ball into the wok and test if it holds together. If yes, add the remaining balls into the wok and fry them to a brown colour on medium heat. (If it starts to crumble/break, add little more maida to the chenna dough and knead for another 2-3 mins.)
Once the balls are fried, put them into the vessel containing the hot sugar syrup. Allow to stand for an hour or so. Ready to serve chenna jhili.
