Rasmalai Recipe | How to make Rasmalai recipe

Easy Rasmalai recipe with step by step photos.Rasmalai or Rossomalai is a popular Bengali sweet apart from Rasgulla. Rasmalai is a popular dessert which takes its place in the menu for Weddings or for special occasions. Rasmalai is a soft and spongy flattened cottage cheese dumpling served in thickened milk known as 'Ras'.Rasmalai is a mildly sweetened dessert compared to other sweets and hence one can easily have a couple of them at one go and still not feel heavy too.

When I had made Rasgullas last time I had saved just a few to make rasmalai as it was a long due for me to post these recipes in my blog.You can check out the detailed process and preparation of Rasgullas with various tips and tricks in my blog here.Once you have rasgullas(either homemade or store-bought) making rasmalai at home is a breeze, though it needs occasional stirring in between.

I have used condensed milk to sweeten the ras(milk) and also added a couple of tablespoons of sugar but one can add only sugar to the recipe.The preparation process of ras(thickened milk) is very similar to Basundi or Rabdi just that we do not need to boil it for that long to get a very thick rabri kind but a slightly thickened milk.For a quicker version, one can more quantity of condensed milk and evaporated milk and store bought rasgullas for a quicker rasmalai.Today I am posting the traditional method of preparing Rasmalai at home.As Holi is around the corner,why not prepare this delicious rasmalai and treat your loved ones with a homemade delectable sweet.

Check out other milk based similar sweets in my blog:

• Basundi
• Rabdi
• Shahi Tukda | Shahi Tukra
• Rasgulla | Rosogulla
• Rice Kheer

Check out how to prepare Rasmali recipe with step by step photos here:

Easy Rasmalai Recipe | Bengali Rossomalai:

Serves 4-5 | Author: Prathibha

Prep time: 10 mins | Cooking time: 30 mins | Total time: 40 mins

Cuisine: Bengali | Category: Sweets/Desserts

Ingredients:

12-15 Rasgullas,homemade or store bought(at room temperature)

1 liter full cream Milk

3-4 tbsp Condensed milk,optional

2 tbsp Sugar(increase it to 1/4 cup if not using condensed milk)

10-12 Almonds

12-15 Pistachios

12-15 strands of Saffron

1/2 tsp Cardamom powder

few saffron strands,to garnish

Method:

• Soak almonds in water for 10 mins.Soak saffron strands in 2 tbsp warm milk for 10-15 mins.

• Cut the soaked almonds and pistachios to small pieces.I used a nut grater to cut the dry fruits.

• Press the rasgullas gently to remove extra syrup from them and keep them ready.If you are making fresh rasgullas for rasmalai,flatten them up while shaping. Click here to see the whole and detailed process of the preparation of rasgullas.

• Boil milk in a thick kadai and once the milk comes to a boil reduce the flame and let it boil on low-medium flame.Keep collecting the cream formed on the milk and push it to the sides giving place to form more cream.Continue the process until the milk reduces to half.You need to keep stirring in between else the milk gets burnt at the bottom.This process might take roughly 20-25 mins,so be patient enough to check it at regular intervals.

• Add saffron soaked milk to the reduced milk and then add condensed milk and sugar and mix it nicely.

• Now add chopped dry fruits to it and continue simmering until it becomes slightly thick.Check the sweetness and add more sugar if needed at this stage.

• Add the squeezed rasgullas to the thickened milk and boil it for 4-5 mins.
• Cool it and refrigerate it.

Serve it chilled by garnishing with more saffron strands and nuts.

Notes:

1. You can add rose water at the end for a flavorful one.
2. Use good quality saffron to get a nice yellow hue for rasmalai, you can alternatively add some yellow color to the chenna while kneading for rasgulla.
3. If you are making rasgulla at home, try to flatten few before they are put in the syrup and also cook rasgullas(for rasgulla) and flattened rasgullas(for rasmalai) separately so that they get cooked uniformly.
4. If you are using ready rasgullas,let them come to room temperature and then press them gently to squeeze out the syrup and flatten it gently, else they will break if you do with the cold rasgullas.
5. The addition of condensed milk is optional,but makes the milk more creamy.I added it as I had it at that moment,else use just the sugar.
6. For a quicker version use full cream evaporated milk and condensed milk in the recipe and you do not need to boil it for longer.Also use store bought rasgullas for the recipe.

Technorati Tags: rasmalai recipe, easy rasmalai recipe, bengali rasmalai, bengali sweets recipes ,rossomalai, festival sweets recipes, diwali sweets recipes, holi sweets recipes ,milk based sweets

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Rasgulla Recipe | Spongy Rasgulla Recipe | Bengali style Roshogolla

Rasgulla is a popular bengali sweet and is pronounced as Roshogolla or Rosogulla by the Bengalis. Rasgulla is one of the most popular sweets in India and thanks to Haldirams for making it available in each and every corner of the country. These spongy rasgullas are favorite to many and I am one among them.I have mentioned many times before that I never liked sweets as a kid and the only one sweet which I used to eat was rasgulla and that too I used to squeeze out the syrup a bit and eat.Now, of course the taste buds have changed drastically and I need at least a bite of sweet or a chocolate piece to satisfy my sweet cravings after every meal. I still cannot eat sweets in more quantity at once but can easily eat one or two pieces with out complaining.

I usually do not try or post these sweets recipes unless for diwali but there is a reason why I am posting a sweet recipe(for me this is a very big sweet as it is bit tricky one too) now. Today is our 10th marriage anniversary which is a milestone not to be neglected and hence posting this sweet recipe to mark our celebrations.

Coming to today's post - rasgulla, I have been planning to post it from such a long time and finally it happened now!! I must say that the process of preparation of these rasgullas sound very simple, but it is very tricky and one can go wrong easily. I have a few failed attempts before and of course we learn from our failures too. I have gone through various blogs and cook books too to find out the mistakes and then tried them and finally got succeeded. I tried my level best to include most of the pointers which one needs to take care while preparing them in this post. Read the recipe carefully and also please go through the notes section where I have highlighted the important things to keep in mind while preparing the rasgullas at home. Though these rasgullas are easily available in the market, but one can try these homemade rasgullas for an experience too, also they taste good in their way too. You can prepare rasmalais with the homemade rasgullas too.Now let us see how to prepare soft and spongy rasgullas at home.

Check out other popular Indian sweets(desserts) recipes in my blog: 

• Carrot Halwa | Gajar ka Halwa
• Lauki(Bottlegourd) Halwa
• Khoya Jamun | Gulab Jamun using Khoya
• Shahi Tukda | Shahi Tukra
• Basundi
• Mango Phirni | Layered Mango Phirni
• Milk Powder Gulab Jamun

Homemade Spongy Rasgulla Recipe:

makes 16-18 rasgullas | Author: Prathibha

Prep time: 15 mins | Cooking time: 30 mins | Total time: 45 mins

Cuisine: Bengali-Indian | Category: Sweets

Ingredients:

1 liter full cream Cow's Milk

1 tsp Sooji/Maida,optional

2-3 tbsp Lemon juice or Vinegar or 1/4 cup Yogurt

1 3/4 cups Sugar(2 cups if you want it very sweet)

4 cups Water

1/2 tsp Green Cardamom powder

Chopped Pistachios, to garnish

Saffron strands,for garnish

Method:

to prepare Chenna:

• If you milk usually gives too much of malai(cream) on top when heated, it is better to boil the milk previously and remove the thick formed cream on top of it.Otherwise this yields very greasy rasgullas.
• Boil milk in a big vessel over medium flame and keep stirring in between(otherwise the milk solids get stuck at the bottom of the vessel) until it comes to boil,now reduce the flame to LOW and add a tbsp of lemon juice and mix it nicely and check if the milk starts curdling, if not add more lemon juice until the milk starts curdling.You need to add the lemon juice until you see the slight greenish whey separates.Generally it takes 2-3 tbsp of lemon juice depending on the quality of milk.You can use vinegar instead of lemon juice in the recipe.Also, you can add yogurt in the recipe, you might need approximately 4 tbsp or more to curdle the milk.

• Once the milk curdles SWITCH OFF the flame and remove the vessel off the stove. You can add few ice cubes to the curdled mixture to avoid further cooking(which yields hard chenna), but it is optional if you do the next step quickly.Also if you are using yogurt to curdle the milk you do not need to add ice cubes or wash the chenna(which we will be doing in the next step),you can proceed to strain the mixture.

• Meanwhile line a strainer with a cheese cloth or muslin cloth and pour the curdled mixture and strain the chenna through it. You can use the collected whey to add to your gravies or to prepare roti dough or to curdle milk again later. Wash the collected chenna(lined on the strainer in a muslin cloth) thoroughly a couple of times under the running water. This process helps in removing the lemony/sour taste from the chenna, you can skip washing chenna if you have used yogurt to curdle the milk.

• Gather the edges of the muslin cloth and gently squeeze all the excess water from the chenna and tie a knot and hang it on the tap for 20-30 mins. Make sure you drain most of the water from the chenna and also ensure that it is not very dry.You can see the texture of chenna in the picture for better understanding.

to prepare rasgulla balls:

• Add sooji/maida(if using) to the crumbled paneer(chenna) and with the heels of your palm mash and knead the chenna nicely for about 7-8 mins to make a soft pliable dough .

• The chenna starts leaving the fat, means your palms will start becoming greasy which indicates you to stop kneading.

• You can divide the chenna into 16-18 equal portions and roll them into equal sized balls.You should be able to roll them into balls with out cracks, which indicates that the texture is correct.Cover the prepared balls with a slightly moist muslin cloth.

to prepare Sugar syrup and cook rasgullas:

• Add 4 cups of water and 1 3/4 cups of sugar to a large pot and let it come to a boil, add cardamom powder to it and once the sugar melts and comes to a rolling boil, gently slide each ball into the water, I added the prepared ones in two batches, do not over crowd them as they need space while boiling and they will become double in size and also to retain their round shape. Boil them for 12-15 mins over HIGH flame, you can uncover and check them in between if you want, which is actually the most fun part of the entire process to see them doubling!!

• To check whether the rasgullas are done or not - drop a rasgulla in a glass of drinking water, if it sinks,it means DONE, else put it back and let them cook for another couple of minutes and repeat the test.

• Once the rasgullas are cooked, transfer them one by one into another large bowl of plain drinking water.

• Repeat the process of cooking another batch of rasgullas and follow the same procedure and test and also transfer them to the pot of cooked rasgullas(transferred to the drinking water pot).
• Let the sugar solution(in which we boiled rasgullas) cool down and come to room temperature. If you are using saffron strands or kewra water add them at this stage after the syrup comes to room temperature.Remove the rasgullas from the plain water and squeeze them gently and put them in the cooled sugar solution.
• Chill them for 3-4 hours or over night.
• You can add chopped pistachios for garnish while serving.

Serve them and enjoy homemade soft and spongy Rasgullas!!

Notes:

1. Milk plays a major role in preparing rasgullas - use only full fat milk not the toned milk.But try to remove the malai(cream) layer formed on top of the milk else it will give greasy rasgullas.
2. Once the milk is curdled, switch off the flame. Do not let it cook further to avoid hard chenna which in turns gives hard rasgullas. Also thoroughly wash the chenna to remove lemony taste.
3. Ready paneer does not work for this recipe.
4. Try to remove most of the moisture from the chenna. If there is too much moisture your rasgullas will break in the syrup and is it is very dry it will make rasgullas dry too.
5. The addition of sooji or maida is optional which helps in binding.You can completely avoid it and still get nice and spongy rasgullas.
6. Knead the chenna nicely until you get a smooth dough which takes easily 7-8 mins, if you roll a ball it should not break.
7. Transfer the cooked rasgullas to the regular water, this ensures that the rasgullas will not cook further and become chewy by sitting in the hot sugar syrup.
8. Use wide bottomed vessel to cook rasgullas and give them enough space to expand, it is better to do it in two batches for the mentioned quantity.Else they might become flat or loose shape if not enough space is given while boiling.
9. You can even pressure cook the rasgullas for one whistle in the pressure cooker over medium flame.
10. Chill them in the refrigerator for best taste as they soak up the sweet sugar syrup nicely. 
11. I used 1 3/4 cups of sugar and they were of correct sweetness for us, but if you want them more sweet increase it to 2 cups. You can check the sweetness of your sugar syrup before you let it to cool down, if you want it more sweet or less sweet adjust by adding more sugar or water and boil it until it melts and then let it cool down.
12. You can use the leftover sugar syrup to prepare shikanji or Sooji halwa or in any other sweets preparation.

Technorati Tags: rasgulla recipe, easy rasgulla recipe, homemade rasgulla recipe, how to make rasgulla, spongy rasgulla recipe, bengali style rasgulla, bengali sweets recipes, diwali sweets, sweets varieties, indian sweets recipes, paneer recipes

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Begun Bhaja | Bengali Style Baingan Bhaja | Eggplant Fries

Eggplants of various sizes make its appearance often in my kitchen in various forms.I use small brinjals for the dry or gravy based stuffed curries or dry curries like Aloo Baingan, Achari Baingan etc and medium long eggplants are used for dry curries or Eggplant Pasta or Vangibath where as the big eggplants(which we use for Baingan Bharta) or long Japanese Eggplants are used for Baingan Bharta or this Begun Bhaja.I like Brinjal based dishes very much and I like it in any form - simple stir fry or gravy or dry curry or rice or pasta or bharta.

Today I am posting a simple Bengali recipe - Begun Bhaja, the recipe is quite simple with the most minimal spices we use in our everyday cooking. It is very simple to prepare and tastes very much similar to Andhra's Vanakaya Vepudu but the look of the final dish is different.Also the addition of mustard oil makes it bit distinct in flavor compared to the simple stir fry. I prepare another Maharasthrian recipe called Vangyache Kaap which is almost similar like Begun Bhaja just that the former version has more spices compared to the latter version. I absolutely love both the versions.

Check out other tasty preparations with Eggplants:

• Eggplant Pakora with Chili Garlic Stuffing
• Rava Vangibath, Vangi Poha, Vangibath
• Brinjal-Soya Chunks Curry, Brinjal Stir fry-with Curry powder
• Bagara Baingan, Bharli Vangi, Kashmiri Dahi Baingan
• Vankaya Kobbari Karam, Vankaya Kothimeera Karam, Vankaya Ullipaya Karam
• Brinjal Sambar, Raw Mango-Brinjal Dal
• Eggplant Pasta

If you are interested check out Bengali style Vegetable Chops.

Begun Bhaja Recipe:

Serves 2 | Author: Prathibha

Prep time: 5 mins | Cooking time: 15 mins | Total time: 20 mins

Cuisine: Bengali | Category: Side dish(Dry Curry)

Ingredients:

1 large Eggplant(Bharta waala Baingan or Japanese Eggplants)

1 tbsp Rice flour

3/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp Red chili powder

Salt, to taste

Mustard Oil/Any other Oil, to fry

Method:

• Wash and cut the aubergines into 1/2" roundels or of your desired size.Put them in water for 7-8 mins.This helps in removing the bitterness if any from the eggplants. Remove them and wipe them using a kitchen towel.

• Meanwhile in a broad plate add rice flour, turmeric powder, red chili powder, salt and 2 tsp oil and  everything nicely. You can skip rice flour at this step and dip the marinated eggplants later in it before frying.
• Now apply this mixture to the sliced eggplants on both the sides and let them marinate for 10 mins.

• Heat a flat tawa and add 1-2 tbsp mustard oil(or any other oil) and spread it and place the marinated eggplant roundels in a single layer.

• Let hem fry for 5-6 mins on medium flame and turn them gently to the other side and fry for another 5 mins. Do not overcrowd the pan if you have more eggplant slices, you can do in batches or in two pans simultaneously.

Serve them hot as a side dish for Rotis/Parathas or Rice.

Notes:

1. Rice flour can be mixed along with the spices or one can dip marinated slices in it before you fry eggplants.
2. If you like tangy and more chatpata add amchur powder and garam masala along with the other spices.
3. You can skip rice flour all together if you want.
4. You can also dip the marinated slices in fine sooji for crispy begun bhaja.
5. Mustard oil adds a nice flavor to the eggplants, if you like it do not skip it.

Technorati Tags: begun bhaja, bengali side dishes, eggplant fry, baingan bhaja, how to make bengali style begun bhaja, side dish for rotis, side dish for rice, eggplant recipes, bengali vegetarian recipes

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Bengali style Vegetable Chops | Stuffed Beetroot Cutlets

I make various cutlets and experiment with various ingredients at home but there are hardly any cutlet cutlets recipes in my space.I like to prepare cutlets as this is the easy way that I can incorporate various vegetables,dals and soy products to make a tasty yet healthy snack.

When I saw Deepa's Vegetable Chops recipe,though it is similar to the other cutlets I prepare I liked the addition of peanuts and the stuffing of beetroot-carrot mixture unlike the way I mix the vegetables inside the dough itself.I followed the recipe mostly with very few changes in the recipe.I would say it is a good cutlet for a change with the bite of peanuts in between.I tried the recipe immediately after she posted and this post is sitting in my drafts from almost few months.I am planning to clear all my drafts before the new year and hence this post finds its way finally to my blog.

Bengali Style Vegetable Chops | Stuffed Beetroot Cutlets:

(makes 10-12 chops)

Source: Deepa's Hamaree Rasoi

Ingredients:

for Stuffing:

1 big Beetroot,grated

2 Carrots,grated

a fistful of Ground nuts,roasted and peeled

2 tbsp grated fresh Coconut

2-3 tbsp Raisins

3-4 Green chillies,finely chopped

1 tsp grated Ginger

1 tsp roasted Cumin powder

1/4 tsp Black pepper powder

Salt to taste

1 tbsp Oil

for Outer layer:

2 large boiled Potatoes

1 whole wheat Bread slice

2 Green chillies,finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped Coriander leaves

1 tsp Coriander powder

1 tsp roasted Cumin powder

1/2 tsp Garam masala

Salt to taste

to Coat the Chops:

2 tbsp Corn flour

1/4 cup Water

1/2 cup fresh Bread crumbs

2-3 tbsp Oil,to shallow fry chops

1 tsp Chat masala,to sprinkle over the chops

Method:

to make filling: 

• Peel the skin of beetroot and carrots and grate them and keep aside.
• Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and add finely chopped green chillies and ginger and fry for a minutes.
• Add grated carrot,beetroot and salt and fry on high flame for 3-4 mins until the water evaporates.
• Add roasted cumin powder,raisins,grated fresh coconut,roasted and skinned peanuts and mix them thoroughly and let the mixture cool down completely.

to make outer layer:

• Pressure cook potatoes for 3 whistles until they are soft.Peel the skin and mash them nicely while they are still warm.
• Dip the bread slice in water and remove it immediately and squeeze out the water thoroughly and add it to the mashed potato.
• Add chopped green chillies and coriander leaves, cumin powder,coriander powder,garam masala and salt and mix well and knead to a dough of chapati consistency.

to make chops:

• Mix water to the corn flour and make a thin slurry out of it.
• Grease your palms and take a big lemon sized ball of potato dough and  flatten it a bit and stuff it with 1tbsp of filling mixture and seal it from all the sides and flatten it to a oval or round shaped patty.
• Repeat the process until you make all the patties.
• Dip the patties in a thin corn flour slurry mixture and immediately roll them in a bowl of bread crumbs and turn the patty to coat it with the bread crumbs on all sides evenly.You can refrigerate the patties for half an hour or you can fry them immediately.
• Heat tawa and add a couple of tsps of oil and place the patties and fry them over medium flame until crisp.Pour some oil over the top of the patties and turn them and fry the other until crisp.You can even deep fry them in a wide pan,but I prefer to use less oil and hence I shallow fry on tawa with less oil.

Serve them hot with green chutney and tomato sauce or Kasundi(mustard sauce).Serve them with evening tea/coffee or as a starter with some aerated drinks/mocktails.

This below picture will give a better view of the stuffing inside the cutlet with few peanuts popping out. I really liked the bite of peanuts in the cutlets.If you keep the cutlets longer the peanuts will become soft,so its better you consume them immediately after you prepare them.

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