Happy Mothers Day !! A celebration to remember, cherish and do something for your mother. My mother’s favourite dessert is the Rasgulla. Rasgulla is a spongy cottage cheese dessert, from Western Bengal, eastern part of India and is a few centuries old dessert. The original name is Roshogolla, Rosho and Ras meaning syrup and Golla meaning ball. So round balls in syrup made of cottage cheese. This is one dessert that all the members of my family cherish and enjoy so just had to make this to celebrate mother’s day and remember my mom via the dessert! Often cooking involves deep memories linked with food!!
The credit of this white spongy rasgullas goes to K C Das, which is still highly revered Rasgulla chain in Kolkata. And I have extremely fond memories of bringing this rasgullas from West Bengal, in claypots, all the way to Bombay and enjoying them fresh at home.
The texture of Rasgulla Spongy Cottage Cheese Balls is soft, smooth and the color is white/creamish.depending on how you make the paneer or cottage cheese. The paneer made with vinegar is white whereas the one made with lemon is slightly creamish. The dessert can be had warm or cold but the trend now a days is to have it chilled. The dessert can be made in an hour and can be consumed for 3-4 days. Another version of this Rasmalai which is made with milk syrup which is also a very popular dessert.
Enjoy this Rasgulla Spongy Cottage Cheese Balls special dessert with your loved ones!
Recipe makes about 30 Rasgulla
Cooking time 30 min
Cooling time – 6-7 hours
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 gallon full fat or 4% milk
- 3 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
- 8 cups of water
- 5 cups of sugar
- few drops of rose essence
- 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
- Ghee for greasing the pan
Method
- Grease with ghee an extremely deep pan, or use a non stick vessel for heating the milk.
- Boil the milk on medium flame.
- When the milk boil, reduce the flame and add lemon/vinegar.
- Increase the flame and stir for a few minutes till, the whey separates and you see cottage cheese separating. The whey liquid is greenish in color.
- Once the whey separates remove from flame.
- Strain the cottage cheese using a strainer.
- Let some water pass through the colander and rinse the paneer / cottage cheese to remove the fragrance of vinegar/lemon.
- Leave the cottage cheese in the strainer for 15-20 min. You can choose to also leave the cottage cheese to strain in cottage cheese mesh cloth for more perfect straining.
- Using the palm of your hand, mash and smoothen the cottage cheese till it feels overall smooth with some grains. The key to finding the perfect consistency is when you see fat separating, at that time gently fold the dough into a ball. You will also notice that the cottage cheese does not stick to the dish in anymore.
- In a shallow pan, put 8 cups of water to boil and add 5 cups of sugar.
- Keep it on a slow flame.
- Make smooth round balls and if the paneer/cottage cheese sticks in your palms, use some ghee in your palms.
Once all balls are done, add them to the warm water with melted sugar.
- Increase the flame to medium high and cover with lid with slight opening. Often people use the pressure cook and do not use the whistle, as an alternative way of cooking vessel.
- After 12 min, gently separate the round balls sticking together.
- Cook for 7-8 minutes, till you see some translucent texture on the rasgullas.
- Remove from flame and after 10 min, add rose essence and cardamom powder.
- Let it cool completely and then serve after 6-7 hours or chill and serve.
Tips
Smoothening the texture of cottage cheese come with some practice. Using lemon is more organic way of making cottage cheese. Some people save the whey made and use it to make further cottage cheese. This one was done with 2tbsp vinegar and one tbsp lemon.
Instinct Factor
The water should be constantly boiling to keep the rasgullas cooking and keep it soft. And look out for a greenish white texture for translucent look. The rasgullas puff up almost 2-3 times, so keep the initial ball size accoridngly.
Feel Factor
Soft, sweet, chilled spongy balls just melt in your mouth. And they are light in feel so easily one can have at least 3-4 at a time! Very rarely you will find someone who does not relish the Rasgulla Spongy Cottage Cheese Balls. Once you get the hang of making this, you will make it every so often and impress your friends and family with this popular delicacy.
