Rasamalai – Delish prepared with freshly made paneer/chenna and is usually served as a part of the royal feast.
I have been always attracted to the North Indian Sweets. They are prepared with milk unlike the South Indian ones and are rich in taste. Whenever I wanted to pick a sweet from the shop, I always picked creamy ones like Rasagulla, Rasamalai, and chumchum. And whenever I had them, I couldn’t stop with just one. I ended up eating many and later worrying about the extra – fat I accumulated in my body. I travel to New Jersey once in a while just to pick up a box of sweets and munch on them. My affinity for these sweets pushed me to try them out in the kitchen. I referred few websites and finally settled on the site – Cookwithmanali.
Ingredients:
For the balls:
- 1 liter Whole Milk
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon Cornflour
- 4 cups Water
- 1 cup Sugar
For the Syrup:
- 2-3 cups Whole Milk
- 1 teaspoon Cardamom Powder
- ¼ cup Sugar
- Pinch of Saffron
- Sliced Almonds and Pistachios for Garnish
Method:
- Heat milk in a wide pan and allow it to boil.
- Once it reaches boiling point, remove from the flame and allow it to cool down a bit.
- The milk should be warm but not in the boiling state.
- Add lemon juice to the milk and let it stand for few minutes.
- The milk will curdle once the lemon juice is added. Whey water will be separated from the chena.
- Allow the milk to curdle down completely.
- Strain the whey liquid using a fine strainer and collect chena in the strainer.
- Wash the chena with the flowing water for a couple of times. Wash it completely to remove the flavor of lemon from the chena and the sourness of it.
- Hang the chena in a cheesecloth and tie it tightly. Let it stand for about an hour.
- The chena should not be too watery or too solid. Lack of water makes the balls rigid and watery chena will break the balls.
- Now, after an hour, to the chena add corn flour and knead them using your palm.
- Knead for about 8-10 minutes until it becomes smooth.
- Make small round balls of it.
- Meanwhile, in a wide pan, add water, sugar and heat it over medium flame. Allow it to dissolve completely. The balls should be evenly spread so that they cook evenly.
- Once the sugar is dissolved, add the prepared chena balls and let it cook for about 10 minutes until the balls float on the top of the syrup.
- The balls will double in size and float on the top once they are cooked completely. The balls will be spongy.
- In a large bowl, add cold water and drop the balls in the water.
- Let’s prepare the syrup now. Heat milk in a wide pan with sugar, cardamom powder, and saffron strands.
- Allow the sugar to dissolve completely. Ensure to stir continuously to avoid being burnt at the bottom. Let the milk reduces and thicken.
- Remove from the flame once it reaches desired consistency.
- Now, flatten the chena balls using hand and drop them in the milk. Let the balls soak in the milk for about 8 hours.
- Chill them in the refrigerator. Garnish with sliced almonds and grated pistachios
- Serve chilled.
Tricks:
- Do not add lemon juice when the milk is too hot.
- Allow the milk to curdle down completely.
- Wash the chena with fresh water couple of times to remove the flavor of lemon and sourness.
- The chena should not be watery or too rigid. There should be moisture in the chena.
- Ensure to cook chena balls in a wide pan so that they will not be overcrowded.
- Allow the chena balls to soak in the milk for about 8 hours, so that the ball absorb the sweetness of the milk.
- Flatten the balls or leave it as such. Add sweetness as per your desire.
- Rasamalai is best served chilled garnished with almonds and pistachios.
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Thanks,
Karthi
