Rasmalai

Rasmalai is a very famous sweet dish in Bengal, consisting of soft paneer balls soaked in chilled condensed milk. It has a very soft spongy texture, it is made similar to cheena(Rasgullas) but in rasmalai balls are soaked in thick flavoured milk instead of sugar syrup.

As a shortcut you can also make rasmalai out of leftover cheena (rasgullas) by just squeezing out the excess sugar syrup from the rasgulla and soak it into a thick flavoured milk and just chill it for 4-5 hours and garnish it with chopped dry fruits.

This rich dessert is usually prepared on special occasions and is served after meals.Today we will learn how to prepare Rasmalai at home with step wise pictures following this easy recipe starting from scratch using milk.

Preparation Time: 5mins  ∏  Cooking Time: 1hour  ∏  Servings: 9-10 rasmalai

Level: Intermediate (Medium)  ∏  Measurement: 1 Cup ≡ 250 ml ≡ 250gm

Ingredients:

Main Ingredients

For Cheena:-

How to make Rasmalai:

For Making Chenna:-

Step1: Pour 1 litre whole milk to a heavy bottom large pan and let it heat on midium to high flame ffor 3-4 minutes. When the milk starts boiling turn off the flame and remove it from the stove and add some water so as to reduce the temperature, let it cool for sometime.

Step2: In the meanwhile when hot milk is getting cooled a bit, we will dilute the vinegar which we will use to cuddle milk.Take 2 teaspoon vinegar and mix it with 5-6 teaspoon water.

Once the milk is cooled a bit and is now warm not too hot, then start adding this vinegar-water solution in batches to the warm milk and stir once (Don’t stir much) and let it settle for sometime. After 2-3 minutes you will notice milk is cuddling.Then again add 2nd batch of vinegar-water solution and mix it once and then let it settle for sometime.Stir it lightly in between.

Then add the remaining mixture to the milk and let it cuddle completely.You will notice the chenna is separated from water (You can add more mixture if you feel it needs more vinegar to let it curdle properly).

Once it is done add 1/2 cup water to the curdled milk and let the mixture rest for 10 minutes.

Step3: After 1o minutes strain the mixture using cotton cloth, strainer and a bowl.Strain the chenna and make sure not to throw the whey (or water from the curdled milk),collect it in a bowl.Now keep the chenna wrapped in a cotton cloth under running water to remove the essence of vinegar.Remove the excess water from the chenna by pressing it slighly.

Step4: Remove it from the cloth and keep it on the workstation.Perfect chenna will be nice and soft with some moisture in it and it will also not stick.Now make the chenna smooth & lump free by pressing it using palm.If you feel cheena is hard then you can add little amount of whey to it.Then roll it and divide it in 9-10 equal parts.

Step5: Now using each divided section make a ball by rolling it with your hands and pressing a bit (as you roll dough for chapati) and dip it in the strained whey. Cheena ball is ready.

For making Sugar syrup:

Step6: Now we will prepare sugar syrup in which cheena balls will be cooked.Take 2-1/2 cup sugar in a pan and add around 4 cups of water to it and let it heat on medium flame for 3-4 minutes.Once the sugar syrup is getting boiled remove half the sugar syrup in a bowl (which we will use it for soaking cooked chenna).

Step7: In small bowl mix 1 teaspoon refined flour and 3-4 teaspoon whey liquid and make a smooth paste.This we will use to make froth in sugar syrup for cooking cheena balls.

Step8: Now add flour mixture to the boiling sugar syrup and close the lid.In 2-3 minutes you will notice there is froth formation inside the pan, this is the perfect time to add cheena balls to the sugar syrup.

Make sure we need to cook cheena in the froth so maintain the heat accordingly otherwise cheena will not be soft and spongy.Now add the cheena balls one by one to the syrup and cover the pan to maintain the froth.

Step9: Now cook these balls for around 10-12 minutes in the froth.Once it is cooked it will be spongy and puffy.Its the time when you can judge that these balls are cooked properly.

Step10: Now remove it one by one from the syrup and dip it into the sugar syrup which we have taken out in step6.

For making condensed milk (or Rabri):

Step11: Pour 1 litre milk in a heavy bottom pan and let the milk boil on medium flame for 5-6 minutes.Now add 1/2 cup sugar and stir well and let it condense for around 10minutes, keep stirring continuous to avoid sticking milk to the base of the pan. Once the milk gets thickened and reduced to half switch off the flame, add saffron strands & cardamom powder and mix well.

Step12: Now chop the dry fruits.Condensed milk (or rabri) is now ready. Gently squeeze the cheena balls to remove excess sugar syrup and one by one dip it to the condensed milk. Once the milk is at room temperature keep it in the refrigerator or make it chill for  around 4-6 hours.

Rasmalai is ready to be served.It tastes best when served chilled.Garnish it with chopped dry fruits and saffron strands.Enjoy this Rasili Rasmalai with your family and friends.

Note: Although its a lengthy process but its worth spending time to enjoy this rasmalai once in a while.You can reduce time by adjusting steps of preparing cheena balls, sugar syrup and rabri simultaneously.