Rasmalai...Bengal Special Sweet

Take a heavy bottomed vessel, add milk. Bring it to boil and keep stirring to avoid burning of milk.

Once the milk comes to a boil, simmer the gas, start adding the lemon juice and keep stirring (if required, add more lemon juice) cook for a few seconds until the milk solids separates from the whey. Switch off the heat.

Pour the curdled milk to the already lined muslin cloth over a strainer, squeeze out all the whey water then rinse chena under the tap water as much as possible.

Now hang the cloth covered chena or paneer on tap for 30 minutes. Then remove it from tap and place a heavy weight on chena for another 30 minutes. It will help to squeeze more water from chena or paneer.

After that, remove the cheesecloth from the chenna or paneer. The chenna or paneer should not have too much moisture nor be too dry.

Take the paneer in a wider plate. Add 1 teaspoon sooji or semolina, adding sooji or semolina helps to bind the mixture.

First mix the sooji with chenna and then begin to knead for 5 minutes. Knead it with your palms for 5 minutes to get a smooth texture.

Divide the chenna or paneer into equal portions and roll into balls and then press lightly to make patties, taking care that there are no cracks. Prepare all the rasmalai patties in this way.

In the meantime make sugar syrup. Take a large pan, take 2 cups sugar and 3 cups water and bring it to a boil. You have to use a large pot or pan so that there is enough space for the rasmalai to cook and increase in size.

Mix and continue to stir the sugar syrup until it gets dissolved. Do this process on a medium flame.

When the sugar syrup starts boiling, drop rasmalai patties gently into the sugar syrup, drop patties according to the size of your pan. The size of rasmalai will be doubled on cooking in the sugar syrup.

Cover the vessel with a lid. Cook for 15 minutes on high flame. After that cook on medium flame for 10 minutes. Open the lid and gently stir every 5 minutes to ensure even cooking and puffing.

Turn of the gas, transfer the Rasmalai patties into a serving bowl without sugar syrup, let them cool. After cooling down you can press the rasmalai patties in your palms, be gentle and don’t apply too much of pressure.

Heat 1 liter milk in a saucepan and bring it to a boil, when milk will start boiling, reduce the heat to medium.

Stir continuously to keep milk from sticking to the bottom of the vessel. Add 1/2 cup sugar and stir till it dissolves and add saffron soaked milk, add cardamom powder.

Cook until it's volume is reduced to half portion. Simmer the heat and drop rasmalai patties into this milk gently. Add 3/4th portion of chopped dry fruits. Cook for 3-4 minutes on low flame.

Switch off the heat, transfer the Rasmalai to the serving bowl one by one with a spatula, pour the milk on them, let them come to room temperature then keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

After 3-4 hours, take out from fridge, garnish rasmalai with saffron strands and 1/4th cup of chopped dry fruits and serve.