Divine Rasgullas

Divine Rasgullas

Rasgulla is one dish that is my absolute favorite dessert. I always thought that it was a very difficult task to accomplish! However, as I discovered by reading up several blogs, there is a trick to achieving the perfect rasgulla. I followed recipes given by 3 amazing food bloggers (links provided below) and learnt that it is probably one of the easiest dishes out there. :-)

So here we go!

Ingredients:

Whole milk: 1 litre
Lemon juice: 1-2 tablespoons
Sugar: 1 cup
Water: 5 cups
Rose essence- 1-2 drops
Pista, almonds, elaichi -optional for garnishing.

Process:

1) Boil the milk. Once it comes to a boil, add the lemon juice.
2) At this point you will see the milk curdling and the solids separating from the whey. Switch off the gas flame.
3) Drain the paneer into a colander lined with cheesecloth.
4) Wash the paneer with cold water well so that the taste and smell of lemon is removed.
5) Tie the paneer in the cheesecloth and hang it on the kitchen tap to drain the water.  Keep this for about 30 mins.
6) At this point squeeze out any excess water from the panner. Make sure you don't make the paneer too dry.
7) Paneer should look like the picture below:

8) Now start kneading the paneer into a smooth dough. It should take about 5-10 minutes for this step and the picture below shows how smooth the paneer should be.

9) Once your panner is smooth and oily, start making paneer balls like this.

10) Once the balls are formed, take a deep bottomed pan and add the sugar and water to make the sugar syrup. Once this syrup comes to a boil, start adding rasgulla balls gently in the syrup and cover with a lid.  (If you don't have a big enough vessel, you can cook them in batches). Make sure there is enough room in the vessel for them to cook. 

11) Cook the paneer balls for 12-13 minutes. Your rasgullas should double in size. 

12) Open the lid and place the balls gently into a vessel filled with drinking water. This step stops the rasgulla from cooking further. Your rasgulla may lose their size a little bit and that is OK. 

13) Let the sugar syrup cool down and come to room temperature. (if you like more sweet, you can add half a cup of sugar and a half cup of water into the syrup and let it come to boil again). Add 1-2 drops of rose essence (optional).

Now take out rasgullas, squeeze gently to remove water and transfer them into the sugar syrup. 

14) Refrigerate for 4-5 hours and serve chilled!

15) Enjoy! And please give me your feedback!!

Recipe Source:

1) http://cookingshooking.in/sponge-rasgulla-recipe/

2) http://spusht.blogspot.com/2013/10/rasgulla-paneer-balls-in-sugar-syrup-indian-dessert.html

3) http://cafegarima.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/rasgulla/