RASMALAI

It is a very popular Indian tradition to start something new by eating something sweet. People follow this tradition since a long time as it is believed that any new work will reap benefits if one starts it with something sweet and a positive mindset.

Thus, I will be starting this section of our blog with something sweet, packed full of flavour and an Indian sweet delight – Rasmalai.

Rasmalai is a rich Bengali desert consisting of Ras (Milk) and Malai (cream). It is basically a combination of milk syrup and sweet, cottage cheese balls.

Without any further ado, let’s delve straight into the recipe, which can be easily prepared at home with minimal ingredients.

Ingredients –

• 2 litres toned milk

• 2 tablespoons vinegar

• 3 cups of sugar – ½ for the balls, ½ for Rabri

• Clean muslin cloth

• Handful of chopped almonds and pistachios

• Saffron

• 2 pods of cardamon

Directions –

The recipe consists of two parts – the first being the preparation of soft, creamy discs and the second part is preparing the creamy liquid or Rabri.

Part 1: Preparation of Cottage Cheese balls or Chenna Balls

• Take 1 litre milk in a saucepan and keep it for boiling on high heat.

• After it boils, keep it aside for 5-10 minutes and then add in vinegar and cold water to the saucepan.

• After sometime the milk will start curdling. Now strain this curdled milk or chenna with a clean muslin cloth and wash it under the tap for 5-10 minutes to remove the bitter taste of vinegar.

• Now squeeze the cloth to remove any excess water and hang it for an hour.

• After an hour, take out the chenna and knead this chenna dough for 30 minutes and keep it aside.

• Now boil three cups of water and add in one and half cup of sugar. Wait till the mixture starts bubbling, and you’ll start to see it starting to thicken. Now switch off the flame.

• Now take the chenna dough and prepare the small-sized balls of the same. Now take these balls and flatten them within your palms to obtain a disc-shape.

• Add the chenna discs into the already prepared sugar syrup and keep them in for 15-20 minutes on medium-low flame until the discs soak in the syrup.

Part 2: Preparation of Rabri –

• Boil the remaining 1 litre of milk in a separate saucepan .

• Add in the cardamon pods , 1 ½ cup of the remaining sugar, a generous pinch of saffron and chopped almonds and pistachios into the milk.

• Boil the mixture until it starts to thicken and is reduced to almost half of the original mixture

Now take out the chenna discs out of the sugar syrup and put them into the Rabri .

Now pour the end product – Rasmalai - into a bowl and add some chopped dry fruits on the top for garnishing.

Keep this in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours to cool.

Serve chilled and enjoy a scrumptious bowl of Rasmalai with your near and dear ones!