Rasmalai recipe
Rasmalai is one of the popular and delicious Bengali sweet where rasgullas (cottage cheese balls) are soaked in thickened and sweetened milk.
Ingredients
FOR CHENNA
- 1½ ltr toned milk
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 cup iced cold water
FOR SUGAR SYRUP
- 4 cups water
- 2 cups refined white sugar
FOR THICKENED MILK/ RABRI
- ½ ltre full cream milk
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ tbsp saffron
- ½ tbsp Cardamom
- ½ tbsp almonds(sliced)
- ½ tbsp pistachios (sliced)
Instructions
MAKING THICKENED MILK/ RABRI
- Pour half litre of milk to a heavy bottom pot and boil.
- Add saffron and sugar when the milk comes to boil.
- Add cardamom, almonds and pistachios and give a good stir.
- Reduce the flame to medium. Stir every 2-3 minutes to prevent the milk from scorching at the bottom.
- When the layer of cream comes, just move it aside.
- Boil until the milk thickens and reduce to half the quantity. Set it aside too cool.
MAKING CHENNA
- Bring milk to boil in a pot.
- Add 2 tbsp of lemon juice and stir until the milk curdles.
- If it doesn’t curdle, add more lemon juice and stirs.
- When you see milk curdled completely, switch off the stove and let it rest for 2minutes.
- hen pour cold water to the pot. This will stop the chenna from cooking further and keeps it soft.
- Place a colander over a large bowl and line with a thin cloth to drain the curdled milk.
- Rinse the chenna with cold water to wash the acidic flavor of lemon juice.
- Tie the cloth and squeeze it well to remove the excess whey as much as possible and hang it for 15minutes.
KNEADING CHENNA
- Knead the chenna well to make smooth dough for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Take small portions of this smooth dough and make tiny flat discs.
MAKING SUGAR SYRUP
- Add 2 cups of sugar and 4 cups of water in a wide pot. (Make sure the pot is enough wide to hold all the rasmalai discs).
- Stir to dissolve the sugar and bring it a boil.
- Bring the sugar syrup to a rolling boil on a medium flame.
- Add the flat discs one after the other gently and cover the pot immediately with a lid.
- Cook on a medium flame for 12 to 15 minutes. The syrup must be bubbling and boiling steadily throughout this time. So adjust the flame as needed according to the pot and stove.
- After every 3 minutes gently stir the syrup with the skewer without touching the rasmalai discs. Cover the pot immediately.
- After 15minutes, remove them immediately from the stove to prevent rasmalai discs from cooking further.
- Keep the lid close for 15minutes and let it cool.
- Allow the rasmalai discs to rest and sink in sugar syrup.
ASSEMBLING RASMALAI
- Take off the discs in a plate and let it cool.
- Squeeze them gently between your palms to remove sugar syrup.
- Add these to the cooled thickened milk or Rabri.
- Before serving, garnish rasmalai with chopped nuts.