Rasagulla - A Bengali Sweet

Rasagulla, is an Indian preparation particularly a Bengali sweet recipe in which cottage cheese balls are cooked and soaked in sugar syrup and served. The preparation requires very few ingredients and serves as a great treat for people with a sweet tooth. Am not a big fan of rasagullas but rasmalai is my most favorite and since rasmalai is prepared from rasagullas I keep making these. Also rasagullas are more easier to make, though it seems a bit tricky its worth trying. 

The first time I tried rasagullas was once, when the milk I boiled got curdled,  it was purely my mistake as I had forgotten to refrigerate the milk packets. And when I boiled the milk it started to curdle and it made me completely vexed as I hate wasting food and when I found I had wasted a litre of milk I just couldn't forgive myself. I did not want to discard it, as it was not sour but tasted fresh and so kept toiling my brain thinking of what to do, finally I ended up making paneer with the curdled milk and then after going through some of my recipe books finally I decided and tried rasagullas from it. The end result was so fabulous, the rasagullas turned out perfect, spongy and good. My husband loved it so much that he had it all. I was glad I hadn't made any wastage and from then on I started making rasagullas using fresh milk and it also came out equally good. So whenever your milk curdles, don't worry just make paneer out of it and you will be extremely happy with your dishes for sure, but make sure the milk has not become sour. Now let see how to make this festive special sweet. Try this at home and surprise your guests, friends and loved ones.

INGREDIENTS 

Makes 7 rasagullas; Serves 1 to 2 people
Total Preparation Time - 2 hours 

1. Milk - 500 ml (use full cream milk)
2. Lemon juice - From one lemon (Remove the seeds)
3. Sugar - 10 spoons 
4. Water - 200 ml 
5. Cardamom pods - 3 
6. Rose essence - 2 drops (Optional)

PREPARATION METHOD

• Pour milk into a sauce pan and place on flame. Wait until it comes to a boil. 
• Then pour the lemon juice into it and stir well until the milk curdles well. Remove from flame and set this aside undisturbed for 30 minutes. 

• Now take a clean white cloth and pour this curdled milk into it and drain the excess water. 

• Wash it well in running water to remove the traces and smell of lemon juice. 
• Then squeeze out the remaining water and hang it aside for 2 hours to remove excess water. If in case out want to make rasagullas immediately just place the paneer wrapped in a cloth, under some weight and set aside for 15 to 30 minutes. This will help remove excess water.
• Now you will get a handful of paneer. 

• Crumble the paneer and knead it well for atleast 15 to 20 minutes. I kneaded it well for 30 minutes to make softer smoother balls. 

• Now take a small gooseberry/lemon sized portion from the kneaded paneer, press well between your palms and make small balls out of it and set aside. See that there are no big cracks on it. 

• Now take a pan add sugar, water, cardamom pods, and wait until all the sugar dissolves well. 
• When the sugar dissolves completely gently slide the paneer balls into the prepared sugar syrup. 

• Close the pan with a lid and cook perfectly for 15 minutes. 
• Then remove the lid and cook open for 10 minutes. By now the paneer balls will have nearly doubled in size. 

• Remove from flame and add 2 drops of rose essence if you wish. 
• Close the pan and set aside for few minutes until it cools down then refrigerate for a while and serve. 

TIP 1: See that you wash the prepared paneer well in water, so that the lemon smell leaves. You can also add a cup of sour-less curd to curdle milk. See that you add it to the milk when its hot only then will get curdled. 

TIP 2: Before making the paneer balls see that all the excess water has been removed otherwise you wont be able to make smooth balls out of it. Also knead well to get softer balls, this will give you nice and fluffy rasagullas. 

TIP 3: See that the balls do not have large cracks on it. If they have cracks they will easily break off while cooking. So press well and then make balls out of it by rolling the dough using your palms. 

TIP 4: Sometimes milk will get curdled while boiling, you can use that curdled milk to make rasagullas also. But make sure that the milk has not got sour. Just follow the same procedure to make rasagullas. 

TIP 5: You can also add a spoon of maida (All purpose flour) to paneer and make balls to get firmer, smoother balls. 

TIP 6: The extra whey water can be use for making softer chapatis. It can also be replaced with water for soaking legumes and lentils. Whey is rich in nutrients so instead of discarding use it in any of the above ways. 

Delicious and Soft Spongy rasagullas are now ready!! Serve as desserts!!

Sending to Nivedham's Sowmya's Autnentic Indian sweets event