Rasgulla

I never thought I would be cooking rasgulla myself at home when until recently I was at my uncle’s place for lunch. Any meal is incomplete without a sweet; yummy rasgulla completed the perfect Gujju meal. It was then and there, I was tempted to cook rasgulla myself at home.

I browsed through various rasgulla recipes on internet. And came across this simple recipe for making rasgulla on sharmis passion blog.

I cooked it once but was not successful as they cracked while cooking in sugar syrup. Second time I again tried cooking it with a little change in the ingredients. This time I added cornflour as binding agent and a little sugar while rounding paneer balls. And Yipeee I was successful making round and soft rasgulla.

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Makes: 12-14 nos

What goes in it:

Milk- ½ ltr

Lemon juice- 1 ½ tbl spn

Sugar- ½ cup

Water- 1 ½ cup

Cornflour- ½ tbl spn

Cardamom powder- ¼ tbl spn (infact less than that, a pinch)

Ice cubes- 4 to 5 nos

How did I make it:

Take milk in a cooking pot. Switch on the gas on high flame and boil milk. As milk boils, add lemon drops one by one. Keep on stirring the milk as you add lemon drops.

As you will stir continuously, milk will slowly curdle up.

As milk curdles up, switch off the gas stove.  Add 4 to 5 ice cubes and let them melt completely. Drain off the whey water using a strainer or channi.

Tie this curdled milk in a cloth. Hang it for 30-40 minutes.

[Foodies’ Note: After half hour when you open up the colth. It will be paneer (cottage cheese).]

After hanging it for sufficient time squeeze in the extra water. Open up the cloth and put it in a plate.

Crumble the paneer. Add cornflour to it. Cornflour will act as a binding agent so rasgulla does not break when you cook it in sugar syrup or chasni.

Knead the paneer with cornflour properly for about 10-15 minutes till you get smooth pliable dough. More properly you knead the paneer, softer the rasgulla will be.

Make 10-12 small balls out of it. While making balls put very little sugar (less than a pinch) in it and make round balls. Keep it aside. See to it there are no cracks while you round the balls.

In a heavy bottomed vessel, put water and sugar. And heat them till it boils. Sprinkle a pinch of cardamom powder for flavour. As the sugar syrup boils, slowly add balls one by one to it.

Cook rasgulla on medium flame keeping it covered for 10 minutes. As you will see, the rasgulla will grow in size. The rasgullas are then done and let it cool.

After sometime transfer to a small container and refrigerate it.  Take out of refrigerator after 1 or 2 hours and Rasgulla is ready to be served.

Bari (Colostrum milk sweet dish)

I am sure many of you must be wondering what is Bari. Well it is a food dish not the bari which is given on karvachauth. It also has a different name which I came across on the World Wide Web; it is known as Posu in south India. Now the next question will be what exactly colostrum milk is? Well it is the first milk which is produced by the cow after delivery of calf.

Bari or Posu is a sweet dish which is delicious, soft, fluffy and rich in calcium.

This is my favourite and mom always makes it when our milkman delivers colostrum milk. Yesterday morning when I went to kitchen I saw yellowish thick milk in a cooking pot. My next sentence was, “Mummy, yippee Bari...” This sweet dish is made by my mom and I was there only to assist her. It is cooked within 30 minutes and when served cool to your guests they are surely going to love this not so regular sweet dish. Just try this for this is healthy too...

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 30-40 small squares (from 2 dhokla plates)

What goes in it:

Colostrum milk (Cow’s first milk after delivery) - 1 ltr

Milk, boiled- ¼ ltr

Sugar, grinded- 3 to 4 cups

Caradom powder- ¼ cup

How did mom make it:

Grind sugar in mixture.

Take colostrum milk in a cooking pot. Put grinded sugar in it and mix them well by stirring milk with spoon. Add your routine boiled milk to it. Stir well.

[Foodies Note: You add normal milk to colostrums milk so that bari turns out to be soft and yummy.]

Now take a dhokla cooker. 

Pour down this mixture in different dhokla plates. Sprinkle a pinch of cardamom powder on the milk in each plate. Place them one by one inside the cooker. 

Close the lid of the cooker so that it cooks inside the steam like you cook idli or dhokla. Let it cook for about 15-20 minutes.

Turn off the stove. Take out the plates and let it cool.

After it cools cut into squares.

Transfer them to a container and refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

Whenever you want to eat it just bring out the container form refrigerator and serve/ eat it. And store in refrigerator only.