Bengali Rasgulla

Rasgullas are homemade cheese or paneer balls soaked in chilled sugar syrup. This recipe is made using a pressure cooker.

Makes 12 rasgullas

Ingredients:

• 4 cups milk
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 1/2 cups water
• Pressure cooker

Method

Paneer:

1. Mix lemon juice in half cup of hot water and keep aside.
2. Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, making sure not to burn milk.
3. As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice gradually and stir the milk gently. The curd will start separating from the whey, turn off the heat.
4. Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, drain the whey using a strainer line with cheesecloth or muslin cloth.
5. Wrap the curd in a muslin cloth, and rince under cold water, and squeeze well. This process takes out the sourness from the lemon.
6. To take out the excess water squeeze the cloth, or press the wrapped paneer under a heavy pan for about one hour.Taking the right amount of water out of the paneer is the most important part of this recipe.
7. To check if enough water is out of the paneer, take a little piece of paneer on your palm and rub with your fingers. After rubbing the paneer for about 15-20 seconds, you should be able to make a firm but smooth ball.
8. Once the paneer is drained, place on a dry, clean surface and knead the paneer for 3-4 minutes until the paneer is almost rolls into smooth soft dough.
9. Knead the paneer by dragging the palm of your hand hard on the paneer. Keep scooping it back to togather and knead more. If the paneer is too crumbly, add a teaspoon of water. Your palm will be little greasy.

Rasgulla:

1. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll them into smooth balls.
2. To make the balls apply some pressure at the first and then release when forming the balls.
3. Mix the sugar and water in a pressure cooker on medium high heat and bring to a boil.
4. Add the paneer balls and close the pressure cooker. After the pressure cooker starts steaming, turn the heat to medium and cook for about seven minutes.
5. Make sure the pressure cooker is large enough to accommodate the finished Rasgullas, as they will expand to about double in the volume while cooking in the syrup.
6. Close the heat and wait a few minutes before you opening the pressure cooker. Pour cold water over the pressure cooker before opening.
7. Rasgullas should be little spongy. After rasgullas are refrigerated the sponginess will reduce and will be soft in texture.
8. Serve the Rasgullas chilled.

Suggestions:

1. If the Rasgullas don’t turn out exactly the way you want, they are hard or not the right shape, do not worry. There’re many ways to create new dish out of the imperfect Rasgullas!
2. For example, if the Rasgullas are too hard or broken, try cutting them into small pieces and mix with soft vanilla ice cream or cover with melted chocolate.
3. You can use the Rasgulla pieces to make kheer, replacing rice with the Rasgulla pieces.
4. The bottom line is to enjoy your creation!