Ras Malai

This is a very famous Bengali sweet and almost everyone loves it. It has simple flavours and extremely tasty. Now the thought of making Ras malai might be scary, coz you dont if it will come out the way you get in the sweets shops...believe me the preparation is very simple and it has very few ingredients. All that you have to be careful about is the timing and consistency. Then rest all works wonders, you can be experimental also. It does not take more than 45-60 mins for the entire process. Dont get scared by looking at the length of this post, I have added many pictures so that its easy for people to understand each step.

And I have to quote, my Husband loves this sweet.

Now for the recipe-

Ingredients :

Whole Milk - 1 Litre

Juice of 1 lemon

water - 5 cups

sugar - 1 cup

cheese cloth.

For the rabadi

Whole Milk - 1/2 litre

sugar - 2 Tsp

Condensed Milk - 2 Tbsp

Saffron Strands - 1Tsp

Almonds - 1Tbsp (coarsely crushed)

Elachi Powder (Cardmom powder) - 1 Tsp.

Method :

Bring the 1 Litre milk to boil in a wide sauce pan. When the milk starts to boil add the lemon juice and stir in, wait till you can see the greenish yellow water separate from the milk soilds. Now is the time to turn off the flame and pour this over the cheese cloth on a colander. Once the water drains, pour some fresh cold water ....ensure to rinse off the lemon flavour.

After the water visibly moved out the cheese cloth, tie it into a small sack and and let the water drip hanging it over the tap.

After 30 mins all the water would have drained completely, remove the milk solid from the cloth. This stage is called the "Cheena". I dont know if I have spelt it correctly, but the key thing to make Rasgollas or ras malai...the cheena has to fresh....you cannot make this ahead. so make the cheena only if you already to complete the dish the same time. The Cheena will have to look like the one in the picture.

Another key thing to get a good quality of cheena is by using Buffalo milk in India. Here you can always use the British Cow milk. But in India ensure to use Buffalo milk.

Now this cheena is the dough that we have to work on, knead it enough to ensure it is smooth....else it will crack or break while its getting cooked.

You can judged if the dough is ready for the next step when you can roll into a ball and not find any fine lines over it.
Now make small balls and slightly flatten it, but dont make it too thin.

Prepare all of it, in the meantime heat the water and sugar in the Pressure pan. Once all the dough in rolled and flattened. And the water is boiling. Drop all the balls at once.

Ensure to drop the balls only when the water is boiling hot. Else the sponge will not be bouncy. Now close the pressure pan and cook on high till one whistle. After the whistle immediately turn off the stove and set the timer for 5 mins and open the cooker exactly after 5 mins by cooling the top with running cold water.

Once you open the cooker, you can see that the balls have risen and bigger in size, remove the balls and drop into a bowl of cold water and let it cool.

In the meantime, heat the 1/2 litre milk for the rabadi in a thick bottom pan. In Pestle and Mortar smash the saffron strands with the sugar, the sugar actions as friction. Drop this in the milk and let it boil on medium flame. Ensure to keep stirring, after the milk has slightly reduced, add the condensed milk and further boil for another 15-20 mins, add the cardamom powder and turn off the heat. You can also make the Rabadi by reducing the milk without adding the condensed milk. But this is the shortcut. Once the rabadi is cool, take the cooked milk solids and gently squeeze out the water and spread over a wide bowl and add the rabadi over it. Add some almonds for garnish and serve chilled.

You can also add Pista, but I avoid to watch the calories.