Sunday 19 October 2014

Rasagullas

Roshagullas as they are pronounced..typically called are famous bengali sweets made from fresh paneer or indian cottage cheese dunked in mild sugar syrup.
I have crush on bengali sweets right from my childhood, those cheesy melt in mouth texture mildly sweetened have always attracted me, also I love rasmalai, champakali, sondesh, malai sandwich and list goes on.
I wanted to try this sweet from very long, tried different recipes, like adding fine semolina, but nothing was to my liking, so finally tried this easy fool proof must try recipe. I came across this recipe in here. You can visit this site and check for more detail. Thanks Garimaji for posting this easy wonderful recipe.

Ingredients:
Milk - 1 liter,
Yogurt/Lemon/Vinegar - 2-3 Tablespoons,
Ice Cubes - 12-15.

Sugar Syrup for cooking Roshagullas:
Sugar - 1 and 1/2 cup,
Powdered Cardamom - 1/2 teaspoon,
Water - 6 cups.

For Final syrup to dunk the rosahgullas:
Sugar - 1/2 cup,
Water - 3/4 cup,
Saffron Strands - few,
Chopped Pistachios - few.



Method:
Start the recipe by making paneer, the original recipe calls for boiling the milk and cooling and remove the malai or cream layer formed on the top of the milk.
Again boil the milk, when it boils add lemon juice/vinegar/yogurt, keep adding until, milk curdles and the water and whey separates clearly.
As I had previous day boiled milk, I removed the cream and proceeded further.
Once whey separates, do not heat any further, immediately transfer to colander.
Here I have used the tip from the original recipe, If you are using lemon juice or vinegar to curdle the milk, then immediately dump the ice cubes into the colander, when you strain it, but if you are using yogurt to curdle milk, you can skip this dumping of ice cubes.
Place a cheese cloth and pour the cheese into the cheese cloth and run under cold water and wash well and squeeze the cloth well, the water from cheese has to be completely drained, its very important.
Hang the cloth for 15-20 minutes.
Once the water drains completely, collect the cheese on a plate and start kneading it with the heals of your fingers, the fat in the cheese will help to knead, within 6-8 minutes on kneads, you will see crumbled cheese coming together into a smooth dough.
Now pinch small balls and roll into smooth balls without any cracks.
I got 13 balls.
While doing this, you can bring light syrup ingredients, that is 1 and 1/2 cup sugar and 6 cups of water and cardamom powder to boil in a thick bottom broad pan.
Here again, when you take pan to boil the sugar syrup take a deep broad/wide pan to boil the syrup, as we will be cooking the cheese balls in this, so we need enough space for balls to boil, again they double up in volume, so need enough space.
If they do not have enough space, then they will not bloat up and will lose shape.
I cooked my roshagullas in two batches.
Once the syrup starts to boil, slip slowly/gently the balls and cover and cook for 12-14 minutes.
Mine took approximately 13 minutes.
It is better to check after 10 minutes.
To check if they are cooked, take a glass of clean drinking water, drop  the cheese ball, if it sinks then it is cooked, if it floats then needs to be cooked for couple of more minutes.
Now again take a broad/wide deep bowl with clean drinking water.
As the cheese balls get cooked drop in this clean water, until the whole of all balls are cooked.
Again this bowl should be wide enough to hold all balls, otherwise it will shrink and lose shape.
Once all the cheese balls are cooked , remove to the cold water bowl.
Now with the left over sugar syrup, add 1/2 cup of sugar and 3/4 cup water and allow to boil, just to melt the sugar.
Once sugar melts, add saffron  and remove from heat, cool it to be warm.
Once the sugar syrup is warm, gently squeeze the roshagullas from water and add to sugar syrup. 
Chill in refrigerator for atleast  3 hour before serving.
Garnish with pistachios and serve and enjoy!!!!!!!!!


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