Rasgulla is a very popular cheese-based, syrupy sweet dish originally from the Indian state of Orissa. It is popular throughout India and other parts of South Asia. The dish is made from balls of chhena (an Indian cottage cheese) and semolina dough, cooked in sugar syrup.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons. All-Purpose Flour (Maida)
- 1 cup Sugar
- Half liter Whole Milk
- ¼ tsp. Citric Acid (dissolved in 1/2 cup of water)
- or 3 tbsp. Lemon Juice (Nimbu Arakh)
- 3 drops of Rose Essence (Arakh e Gulaab)
- or ¼ tsp. Cardamom Powder (Ilaichi Powder)
How To Make Rasogulla
- Start by grabbing a pot and placing over a medium heat flame. Add milk and let it boil, setting it aside when the boiling begins. Add citric acid or lemon juice to the milk and softly carefully mix frequently. stir until the white curd forms on the top and seperates from whey.
- Wash the chenna, or the curd that is obtained when straining this milk, under very cold running water. Twist and squeeze the cloth that you used to strain. This should extract water.
- Knead the chenna next until it forms smooth dough. When a smooth dough is formed, place in refined flour and continue to knead.
- Next, form into approx. 6 or 7 balls that are equal in size. Place them aside and begin making the sugar syrup.
- Grab a new saucepan and in it place sugar and water. Let boil, later adding the chenna balls and letting cook for around 15 minutes. Have the lid partially covered. Don’t be surprised if they puff up.
Allow the rasgullay to cool in room temperature. Add the rose essence and refrigerate and chill.
Rasgulla Tips:
- Rasgullas should always be cooked on a very high flame.
- While cooking rasgullas, the sugar syrup must froth continuously.
- While cooking, rasgullas expand to at least 4 times their original size.
- While sprinkling water on the syrup when the rasgullas are cooking,
- make sure you sprinkle a little water at a time (approx. a teaspoon at a time using your hands) and not large quantities.
- The cooking time of the rasgullas will vary depending on their size.
- Make sure that the milk is lukewarm while adding the citric acid mixture.
- Do not shock hot milk as it will affect the quality of the chenna.
- Always use cow’s milk for making chenna as it has a low fat content.
- If you use buffalo’s milk, let the milk rest after boiling it and then discard the skin that is formed.
