I tried making Rasmalai yesterday and they really came out well. I had kept them in fridge last night and had them now...they were soo delicious :) I made the rasogollas first, and then soaked them in milk. I got this recipe from

Manjula's Kitchen...an awesome site...you can check there too.

Here comes the recipe which yielded 12 Rasmalais ... :)

Rasogolla



Ingredients :

Milk - 4 cups ( 2% is ok)
Lemon juice - 1/4 cup, mixed in 1/2 cup hot water.
Water- 41/2 cups
Sugar- 11/2 cups

Method :

To make the paneer/chhana -

Boil the milk in heavy bottomed pan and stir continuously so that the bottom of the pan doesn't get burned. After it comes to boil, add the lemon juice mixed in water. When the curd starts separating from whey, turn off the heat.

Once the curd has separated completely, drain the whey in a strainer lined with a muslin cloth. I dont have one, so I use an ordinary handkerchief :P It works okay. Wrap the curd in the cloth and then rinse under cold water. This helps in removing the sourness of the lemon.

Then squeeze the cloth and keep under a heavy bottomed pan. I do not have that either, so I just keep the wrapped cloth in the strainer and keep on a deep bowl for about an hour which works the same way as hanging the muslin cloth. I have made Rasogollas twice before and this has worked well :)
This step is very important in making rasogollas.

To check whether enough water is out of paneer, take a small portion on your palm and rub with your fingers. After a few secs, you would be able to make a small ball. This advice is directly from the above mentioned video.

When its done, put the paneer on a hard and clean surface and knead for sometime to make a smooth soft dough.

Divide the dough in 12 equal parts and make small balls. Keep it round shaped for rasogollas. And press them lightly into shape of patties for Rasmalais. Since I was making rasmalais this time, you would find the shape of rasogollas a bit flat !!

Mix the water and sugar in a pressure cooker and bring to a boil. Then add the balls in the syrup and close the lid. My cooker doesnt give whistles, so after it started rocking, I put the heat in medium and cooked for 7 mins. The pressure cooker should be big enough because the paneer balls will double its size when they are done.

After 7 mins, keep it off the heat for about 4-5 mins and then put the cooker under cold water to release the pressure. Open the lid and take out the rasogollas !!!! :)

Rasmalai

Ingredients :

Rasogollas - as described above

For Milk syrup :

Milk - 3 cups, 2 % is fine ( I used fat-free)
Sugar- I used about 6-7 tsp (adjust to taste)
Cardamom - I crused about 6-8 whole cardamoms
Pistachios - sliced for decoration

Method :

After making the rasogollas/rasmalai patties, take them out of the cooker and squeeze them slightly and keep them aside. Oh they were soo hot !!

Boil the milk while stirring continuously. Add the sugar and keep stirring till reduced to about 2 cups. I added the cardamom powder and some pistachios after this step.

Then add the Rasmalai patties in the milk and cook for 5-6 mins. Pour them in a bowl and garnish with the remaining pistachios. Serve chilled !!

Enjoy !! :)

Update : After seeing these, the first thing that my Mom said was ," why so big" ?? I was a bit surprised and replied that the size was like this only in the video which I followed !! Actually in Kolkata, we used to have rasmalais which were small balls in milk syrup ...but seeing the size in the website, I thought probably I was confusing with something else. But after asking my hubby I was sure Rasmalai in Kolkata are very smalls balls indeed. So if some of you are wondering "why so big"... here lies the answer !! :P Next time I would make it smaller...thus would get many rasmalais. :)