RASMALAI THE QUEEN OF ALL DESSERTS

RASMALAI: QUEEN OF ALL DESSERTS 

Rasmalai is believed to have originated in Bengal. The word Ras- Malai is the Hindi cognate which comes from two Bangla words:  Ros meaning juice and  Molai  meaning cream.  This dessert is made from cheese, milk , saffron, cardamom powder and nuts.  According to one of the local sweets shop in Kolkata, this Bengali dessert was first made and perfected by KC Das.  Although this claim can not be easily verified.

Rasmalai is a creamy and milky syrup that consists of cottage cheese balls or discs.  The syrup is made from full cream milk, sugar, cardamom powder, rose water, saffron threads and garnished with almonds and pistachios. This dessert is served cold.  Unlike other desserts this popular dessert needs skill and practice to perfect it.  The key to the success of this dessert lies in the process of making Chenna or paneer (cottage cheese)from the milk. If a little bit of water content is left in the chenna or you haven’t kneaded it well, the balls or discs will turn out to be hard and that can ruin this dessert.

Last month my old friends were visiting me after one year and I wanted to make something very special. So I decided to make this queen of desserts, Rasmalai.  Everyone loved it and almost everyone took second helpings.  Here is my recipe I would like to share with everyone.

Ingredients:

For Making Balls or Discs

5 cups of whole or full cream milk, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, 4 cups of water

Method:

Take milk in a heavy bottom pan and boil on the medium flame. When milk starts to boil, reduce the flame and add lemon juice gradually. Stir it gently till milk starts to curdle. Turn-off the flame and let it cool off for a while. Take cheese cloth, place it on a colander and let curdled. Ilk pass through the cheese cloth.  Whey will drain away and thick creamy chenna will be left in the cloth. Run the chenna or paneer under the cold water so no residues of lemon are left in the chenna.  Now collect the opposite  links of the cheese cloth and tie it on the water tap on the kitchen sink.

Let all the water drain away.  It takes almost two three hours for water to drain.  You may squeeze the chenna bundle gently between your palms so that no excess water is left.  Transfer the chenna to a pan and knead it for half hour.  Put a drop of cooking oil on your palms and make small balls but flatten them a little as we are making rasmalai.  Put these in a plate.

In the meanwhile, make a sugar syrup by adding one cup of sugar to four cups of wAter in an uncovered pressure cooker. Put it on the stove till sugar is dissolved.  Now put six or seven of the flattened balls in the pressure cooker(depending on the size of your pressure cooker) and close the lid of the cooker.  These chenna balls will expand in the sugar syrup.  When steam starts to build, reduce the flame to low and put the timer for exactly 7 minutes. After seven minutes turn off the stove and take the pressure cooker to kitchen sink under the cold water as that will help opening the lid. You will hear a sound. Close the water tap. Open the cooker and gently take out the chenna balls or discs in a big bowl. Some syrup will also come out which is fine.  Let them cool off. Repeat the process till all the flattened balls are cooked. Once cool, put the bowl in the refrigerator. They have to stay overnight before we put them in the milk syrup.

Ingredients:

ForMilk to Dip Rasmalai 

6 cups of whole or full cream milk, 1 cup sugar, 15-20 threads of saffron, 10 almonds cut into small pieces, 10 pistachios cut into small pieces, 10 cashews cut finely, 1/2 tsp cardamom powder, 1 tsp rose or Kewra essence.

Method:

Put milk in a heavy pan over the stove till it starts to boil.   Reduce the flame but keep stirring till milk reduces to half or a little more than half. Put saffron in the milk and add almonds and cashews. Turn off the flame.  Now put sugar in the hot milk and stir well so sugar dissolves completely.  Add cardamom powder.  Let it cool off completely.  Your milk to dip rasmalai is ready.

Take out the sugar dipped discs from the refrigerator and gently press each disc between your palms and dip in the prepared milk.  Repeat the process till all discs are dipped in the milk. Put them In a nice flat bowl. Add kewra or rose essence and garnish with pistachios.   It is a good idea to leave rasmalai in the refrigerator for a couple of hours so it soaks the milk. Now enjoy this scrumptious dessert.