NO-CHENNA/PANEER RASMALAI

21.06.2020: Today, we experienced the solar eclipse and at the end of the day, if you happened to remark that it’s been a long day, do know that it literally would have been so. Skip is fascinated with space and celestial bodies and is keenly following the movement of the eclipse.  He says his favourite celestial event is the occurrence of the blood moon since it can be seen with the naked eye and that he’d like to call it the pomegranate moon.  

I may have mentioned my earlier disastrous attempt at making Rasogullas. I find making Indian sweets daunting as it almost always involves too much stirring, reducing a liquid or getting the right consistency. When my parents hosted dinner parties, my mother would invariably make either Trifle or Rasmalai and these were the best that I’ve ever had. The Trifle would have an assortment of fruits, cake, jelly and custard and a bite of it would result in an explosion of flavours. The Rasmalai would be sweet, soft and spongy.

The yellow colour comes from the egg yolk.

Mamma had given me the recipe for Rasmalai 9 years ago and the time had finally come for me to try and make it. I decided to make it at 9 in the night (always a bad hour to try a new dish). I had Skip to assist me, not just with the cooking but also in sending panic voice notes to mamma. What you see in the picture is from the second attempt. “Every cooking disaster is a new lesson well-learnt”. Since mamma sent me cup- measurements, I ended up using a bigger cup and adding too much sugar and milk powder and the result was Peda dipped in sugary milk. Skip and Sky liked it (I’m beginning to wonder if these are ideal candidates to judge a dish or probably, I’m just too self-critical).

Sky invited V home for dinner, and I decided to make the Rasmalai again for dessert. Skip had spent a few days with my parents, and he learnt to make the Rasmalai there though he keeps forgetting the name and ends up calling it the Rasgullam or Rasmilla. V and Skip say they loved the Rasmalai. I’m yet to master it and make it as spongy as the one’s mamma used to make. The trick is to get the quantities right. Do read the Recipe Notes before you make the Rasmalai.

I like this recipe as it involves fewer steps and doesn’t require separating cheese curds (chenna) from milk. Besides milk, you only need an egg and a tiny cup of milk powder and baking powder.

I’ve always preferred Rasmalais to Rasogullas. Which do you like more?

RASMALAI (Makes 8)

Ingredients:

Egg- 1

Milk Powder – 1 small teacup, heaped (50gms)

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Fresh milk – ½ - 1 litre

Sugar – ½ teacup (20- 25 gms)

Rose essence / cardamom powder – ½ tsp

Chopped almonds/pistachio- 1 tbsp (optional)

Saffron – few strands (optional)

Method:

1.     Add sugar to the milk and boil it around 5-6 times until the milk thickens slightly. Turn off the flame.

2.     Separate the egg white from the yolk. Beat the egg white until it’s stiff. Add the yolk and beat again.

3.   Add milk power and baking power to the egg and mix well to form a dough. Make small balls and then gently flatten it.

4.  Heat the thickened milk and once it starts to boil, drop the balls gently into the pan, reduce heat to low. Let the balls cook on low flame for 20 minutes. Keep swirling the pan at regular intervals so as not to let the balls stick to the bottom. If possible, gently flip the balls after 10 minutes.

5.  Remove from heat when they are cooked. Once cooled, add the saffron and rose water/cardamom powder. Gently pour it into the serving dish. Sprinkle chopped nuts on it and let it chill in the fridge for a few hours.

6.     Serve cold.

7.     Done.

Recipe Notes:

·       Both the times that I made the Rasmalai, I started off by boiling ½ litre milk, but I had to keep pouring additional milk as the Rasmalai was being cooked in the milk. The next time I make it, I shall start off with 1 litre milk.

·       I added 25 gms of sugar to the milk. While others found it just right, I felt it was a tad bit too sweet.

·       The Rasmalai dough ought to be sticky. It is a difficult task to roll it into balls but do not add more milk powder.

·       Use a broad bottomed pan to cook the balls as they expand when cooked.