Rasagulla

Rasagulla

 

Ingredients:

• Indian Cottage cheese also known as Chenna (Bengali / Odiya) also known as Paala Virugudu (Telugu), Paneer in Hindi
• Sugar
• Water   

 

 

Preparations:

• Take 2 liters of milk and curdle to make Chenna (If required please see the video on "How to make Paneer"). Take a slotted plate (Chillula pallem in Telugu) and spread a muslin cloth in it. Pour this Chenna along with water into this slotted plate. After all the water gets drained, gather the muslin cloth together and press to remove excess water from Chenna. To test whether all the water has got drained or not, take a little Chenna in your palm and rub with your finger until it is smooth. Then try to make a ball from the rubbed Chenna. If you get a firm ball then you are ready to make Rasagullas. If the ball is too smooth and falls flat then it means that there is still some more water present in Chenna which needs to be removed.
  
  There is another method to remove water. Take a slotted plate (Chillula pallem in Telugu) and spread a muslin cloth in it. Pour this Chenna along with water into this slotted plate. After all the water gets drained, gather the muslin cloth together and Put some heavy weight (preferably the grinding stone) above this which will press the Chenna in the muslin cloth. Due to pressing excess water gets drained out. Here I kept the Chenna under heavy weight for one hour. When all the water is drained we get a flat, dry Chenna mixture which we call it as Paneer. Divide this Chenna into 2 parts. Here I got 270gms of Paneer and I have divided it into 2 parts weighing 120gms and 150gms. 
  
  
  Method I (Without using the Processor):
• Indian Cottage cheese also known as Chenna (Bengali / Odiya) also known as Paala Virugudu (Telugu) Paneer in Hindi – 120gms,
• Sugar - 1 Cup
• Water – 3 Cups

Knead the Chenna by hand. Take the Chenna on to a clean platform and start rubbing it with your palm. Gather the Chenna together and rub once again. Repeat rubbing till the Chenna is smooth. We should feel the ghee on our palm (even when you use low fat milk to make the Chenna, you would feel the ghee on your fingers). We should get smooth dough to get soft Rasagullas. It takes just few minutes of rubbing patiently. 

Take a pressure cooker and add some water to generate steam for cooking. Now put this pressure cooker on heat. Take 1 cup sugar and 3 cups water in a flat dish on another stove and heat it. Stir the sugar mixture till all the sugar is melted. Now allow this syrup to boil. Meanwhile make 10 equal portions of the smooth Paneer dough. Now make these portions into round balls by rolling them between your palms. When the sugar syrup is boiling add the Paneer balls to it slowly. Now transfer this bowl from the stove into the pressure cooker and close the lid. When the cooker is about to whistle, simmer the heat and cook for 15 minutes before switching off the stove. When the cooker cools down completely, remove the pan from it. Now you can see that your Rasagullas are double in size and look like sponge balls floating in water. Keep them aside for at least 4 hours before you eat so that they become firm by absorbing more syrup.

Method II (Using the Processor):

• Indian Cottage cheese also known as Chenna (Bengali / Odiya) also known as Paala Virugudu (Telugu)– 150gms
• Sugar - 1 Cup
• Water – 3 Cups

In the second way knead the Chenna by using a food processor. Take a processor bowl and select the flour kneading blade to process. Scramble the 150gms Paneer with fingers and add it to the bowl. Now close the lid and run the processor on low speed. Initially you will see that the Paneer is dry. After sometime you get soft dough from the scrambled Paneer. Then stop the processor and check.

Take a pressure cooker and add some water to generate steam for cooking. Now put this pressure cooker on heat. Take 1 cup sugar and 3 cups water in a flat dish on another stove and heat it. Stir the sugar mixture till all the sugar is melted. Now allow this syrup to boil. Meanwhile make 10 equal portions of the smooth Paneer dough. Now make these portions into round balls by rolling them between your palms. When the sugar syrup is boiling add the Paneer balls to it slowly. Now transfer this bowl from the stove into the pressure cooker and close the lid. When the cooker is about to whistle, simmer the heat and cook for 15 minutes before switching off the stove. When the cooker cools down completely, remove the pan from it. Now you can see that your Rasagullas are double in size and look like sponge balls floating in water. Keep them aside for at least 4 hours before you eat so that they become firm by absorbing more syrup.

Keep them in refrigerator (not deep freezer) till use.

Tips:

1. Take a sufficiently wide dish to steam cook your Rasagullas. If it is a narrow dish they get attached to each other like Siamese Twins (in this case Siamese Tens).

2. If you are not successful in the first attempt don't worry. Nothing goes waste in this dish. Gather the Paneer, squeeze out the syrup and enjoy it with the family or put it in Navratan Kurma.

3. Use the syrup for the next round of trial. Note that with each reuse the whiteness of the Rasagullas reduce and the red tinge increases. The taste wouldn't be affected

4.The entire art of Rasagulla making depends on how much to knead paneer into a soft dough. Kneading should be optimum. Not more not less and it comes by experience. In three to four attempts you should be able to make good Rasagullas and feed a Bengali Dada to put him to surprise!!! 5. My Bengali friend says that if a girl can make good Rasagullas she makes a Good HOME!!!

Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!