Rasgulla & Rasmalai !!

Paneer/Cheese balls cooked in sugar syrup

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Dear Foodies,

Rasgulla's

I was sooo excited after digging my teeth into one of these lovely, juicy lil fellas that I had to put it up on the blog immediately. Will get back with photos detailing the recipe later this weekend.

But if you cant hold on until then, then jump over to Priya's blog for her recipe.

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Rasgulla

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After seeing Priya's post on rasgulla's I was really tempted to try it out. So this weekend a friend and I tried making this absolutely delicious sweet and I have to say it is a cakewalk making them. Thank you soo much for the recipe Priya.

I am not going to detail the recipe as it is very similar to how Priya made it. I just made a few changes that. I used a gallon of whole milk (Vitamin D milk). I learnt that the best way to split the milk is to add the lemon juice right when the milk is boiling and begins to rise ( a timely tip from a friend). After filtering out the water and looking at the amount of paneer left my friend and I sadly estimated the no. of rasgullas to be 20 lil ones. I did not have a cheese cloth and used one of the many free t-shirts we get around the campus, it took the paneer just about an hour to dry out completely. I totally forgot about using the blender which Priya mentioned and kneaded it by hand as given in one of the links she provided. We kneaded it for about 15 mins and I would have added about 4 teaspoons of all purpose flour. We then started to make tiny balls out of it and thats when we realised it was becoming a never ending process...the estimate of 20 slowly became 40, then 50 and finally stopped at 60 rasgulla's !! While making the balls don't apply too much pressure, knead it well and lightly press to get the shape you desire. I pressure cooked 20 rasgulla's in one batch. I made the syrup with 1 cup of sugar in 3 cups of water, but I had to add more as the sugar vanished once the rasgulla's were cooked. So taste the syrup to make it a little sweeter than you really want the as the sugar got absorbed into the rasgulla's leaving the syrup bland. I added a few drops of rose essence in one batch and 4-5 elaichis in the other, both of them were excellent. The rasgulla's were extremely fluffy and soft, when flattened with a spoon they immediately bounced back to shape taking in more syrup. yummmmm :-)

I pressure cooked the rasgulla's for a little more than one whistle in a Hawkins pressure cooker got from India. I turned off the heat 2 mins after the first whistle, basically I saw to it that I dont hear the second one.

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Rasmalai

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I had a little more paneer left after two batches of rasgulla's and so made rasmalai with the rest. I reduced 2 cups of milk to half the quantity, in the microwave, added 2 tablespoons of condensed milk and 1/2 cup sugar, then dunked the flattened balls into it and microwaved it covered for 15 mins. I was a little lazy to use the cooker again and so microwaved the rasmalai. You can follow the same timings as for the rasgulla to make these. After you have reduced the milk, drop-in the paneer balls with room for them to grow and pressure cook for a little more than one whistle.
I added 4-5 powdered elaichis and sliced pistachios to the milk for additional flavor. Even this one was a winner, tasting super yummy.

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Thank You Time !!

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(Paneer balls ready to get transformed into fluffy Rasgullas)

This post is going to be my platform to finally say my Thank you's to all those who made me the foodie I have become !! The first Thank You is surely to my Mom and Dad. If not for their enthusiasm for good food I wouldn't have been such a foodie. My mother, I think is THE best cook. My lunch box at school always found friends other than me to empty it. She constantly experimented with different cuisines and churns out wonderful dishes. Any dish I make is perfect only if it tastes just like how my mom makes it and that I have learnt is extremely difficult :-P !! Even now when I am so far away from her kitchen I still continue to pester her to make my favorite dishes so that I can post them up on the blog here, and she has been doing it soo wonderfully with my Dad capturing them through photos. (Well the secret is, I want the recipes..and blogging is an excuse to get the secret ingredients from her ;-) shhhh) My Dad is a great foodie too, we used to compete in setting the salad plate for dinner and it used to be soo much fun. He would also neatly chop the fruits of that season and leave them in the fridge for all of us to gobble them up with out any trouble :-) Well....I could go on and on about the two of them. So I will end now with a huge Thank you and loads of hugs to you :-) Love you ! Today (14th, Nov) is my Dad's b'day, Happy Birthday Nana :-)

My roomies and friends and my brother who got trapped once, are the poor souls on whom I have been testing my experimentations all throughout. If not for their words of encouragement even for the worst turnouts in the kitchen...I wouldn't have dared to start this blog !! They are always pouring out praises that boost my confidence and I end up torturing them even more with my new experiments ...hehehe I know you guys repent it now...but its tooo late, the damage has been done. :D Thank you guys :-) ( Applause )

There are also the wonderful bloggers who share their tried and treasured recipes, so that newbies like me can flaunt the recipes at parties and with friends and take all the praise too. Thats a perfect example for 'having the cake and eating it too'...it couldn't have been any easier. Each one of the bloggers has re-defined cooking as not just a chore, but as a way of showing your love and affection towards your family and friends. Cooking should be done with a consciousness to make delicious and healthy food is what many of them have showed through their blogs. I also started the Treasure Trove section to thank all the bloggers for sharing their recipes and now I am going to say it here too. Thank You !

I was tempted to put a stat counter after reading Indira's post about her reaching a blog milestone ( Congrats to her again) a few days back and I was shocked on seeing the results !! I thought there were just a bunch of fellow bloggers who came to my blog and I always took the no. of comments to be the sole yardstick for readership !! I realized that apart from bloggers there are soo many others who come here, some who either leave their footprints through comments and many who are silent visitors. Thank you all soo much for dropping by, it really means a lot to have you guys visit me :-)

And most importantly, I'd like to thank Meeta, the person who gave us a chance to Give Thanks. Her blog is a delight not just for foodies but also to those who enjoy beauty. Each one of her photos is a masterpiece in itself and she has constantly been raising the bar for good pics !!