Bengali Rasgullah

Dear Sweeties!!! Hope you are all in a celebration mood. June brings tons of parties in Ashland. For Fathers day, I wanted  a light sweet and a cake off course. I made a wholewheat eggless mango cake, which was superb. The kids enjoyed the cake and it was gone in no time.

Like a true desi guy, Mr. Ash likes sweets specially bengali mithai which uses paneer/chenna/cottage cheese extensively, the sweet cheese balls are dipped or soaked in sugar syrup and chilled to perfection. They literally can make you fall in love with sweets again.

I always though that making them at home would be tough and time consuming, but in reality it is super easy and  done in steps so at no time one step takes more than 10-12 mins.


You will need; to make Paneer for Rasgullah
3 cups Whole Milk
1 tbspn White Distilled vinegar
Cloth to strain and tie the milk
Boil the milk. When it comes to a slow boil, reduce heat and start adding the vinegar tspn by tspn. I needed 1 tbsps to get the milk to tear and the whey to separate.

When the whey and the milk solids separate, drain the solids in a cotton cloth and save the whey. This whey can be used for other recipes. Wash the milk solids to remove the sourness from the vinegar, squeeze the cloth with the milk solids and remove as much water out as possible. 

Tie it around the cotton cloth and keep weight over it to form a cheese ball. Once set for about an hr the paneer is ready to be used.
Making Rasgullah
Take the paneer and crumble it and knead it. The paneer should be kneaded till there are no wrinkles in it and it is so soft that the balls are markfree. I kneaded the paneer for 10 mins. I got around 10-12 small balls.
You will need;
Paneer from -As Above
3 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 tspn kewra Water
 
In a pressure pan take 3 cups water and add 1 cup sugar to make syrup. When the syrup comes to a small boil, start adding the rolled paneer balls over the boil, take care that the pan is big enough and they have enough room to swim and not break. The balls will grow bigger as and how they cook. 

Cover and let cook on low heat for 1 whistle. The rasgullahs are ready. Add in a tspn of kewra water to the syrup for essence.

Serve chilled.