Rasmalai

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. :)

Happy Valentine's Day with Moghlai Paratha

Hiiii ... I am back !! :-) It had been very busy past few months...hope all are doing well :) I started writing this post on Valentine's day but could not finish it. So I am not changing the heading :P I feel everyday should be Valentine's day because we need to make our loved ones feel special always !! :)

Sometimes I have this crazy urge to make something right now... so I search thru recipes over the net and rush to the kitchen !! :P At times I let my hubby know what I am upto....and even though he is feeling like eating something else...I convince him to try it out because I am craving to make it today itself !! :P Last night (read : day before V'day) was something like this...when I felt like making (and eating as well) moghlai paratha...so even though he was thinking of having American dinner, we decided to go ahead and have moghlai paratha and keep the other idea for tonight. So, that's how I made Moghlai paratha which actually came out very good :) Hmmm...let's see what happens tonight with the plan to make lasagna for the first time which we have not even eaten before. ( Update: I made it yesterday, recipe coming soon :D ) I made some new dishes in between which I will posting one by one and of course, visit my friends' blogs which is pending for loong !!

I searched through a few recipes for moghlai paratha and ultimately followed Dolon's recipe. Here is a link to her blog. Check out Sayantani's moghlai paratha too :)

I made a simpler version of aloor dum with small cubed sized potatoes first, which can be eaten as side for other breads also. Then I prepared the parathas.

Aloor-dum

Ingredients I used :

Potatoes - 3 big, chopped in small cubes

Onions- 1 large, chopped finely

Tomatoes- 2 medium, chopped in cubes

Green chillies- 2, chopped

Cumin seeds-1/2 tsp

Cumin and Coriander powder- 2 tsp

Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Red Chilli powder- 1/2 tsp

Kashmiri chilli powder- 1/2 tsp

Garam Masala powder- 1/2 tsp

Ginger-garlic paste- 1tbsp

I dint have cilantro, so cudn't use it. But it gives a nice smell when added before removing from heat.

Method :

I made this curry a bit differently than the way I normally make Aloor-dum because here the main dish was moghlai paratha and I wanted to start with that as soon as possible. Special aloor-dum is there for luchi na !! :D

Here is how I made it :

Heated 2 tbsp oil in pan. Added Cumin seeds when oil was hot and let them splutter. Added the potato cubes and fried them medium high heat. When they were slightly done, I added the onions and fried well. Then I added the ginger-garlic paste and kept stirring till the raw smell was gone. Made a paste with all the masalas except garam masala , with water and added to the pan. Kept stirring till oil separated from the side of the pan. Then I added the tomatoes and cooked in low heat till they became mushy.

After that I added one and half cup of water and let it boil. Then I cooked it in medium heat till potatoes were done. I sprinkled garam masala on top and covered with lid and kept it off heat for atleast 10 mins.

I made the curry before paratha as I would be using some curry as stuffing and also we could eat the parathas hot as soon as they were ready.

Moghlai Paratha

Ingredients:

All purpose flour/Maida - as much as needed

Warm water to make the dough

Salt to mix in dough

Oil

For the stuffing:

Eggs- 3

Onion- 1 medium

Salt

Green chillies

Black Pepper

Method:

I made the dough for paratha just like I make for luchi/poori, mixing the maida with salt and oil and kneading for about 5 mins. Then making a firm dough with warm water, as needed. I kept the dough covered with wet cloth for about 15-20 mins.

In the meantime I prepared the stuffing by beating the eggs and mixing with chopped onions, green chillies, salt and black pepper. Also, I smashed some potato curry in a bowl also to be used as stuffing.

Then I made balls from the dough big enough to roll out a roti of approx 8 " - it was the size of my 'chaki' (the round wooden board on which I make rotis - belan-chaki). But actually it led to small parathas after folding, so making bigger than this would lead to bigger parathas just like street side shops.

After rolling it, I put 1-2 tbsp of egg mix in the centre of the roti and added potato curry on top of it. Then I folded the round roti from four sides so as to cover the stuffing thus leading to a square-shaped paratha. I sealed the sides with wet fingers.

I already kept one skillet on heat with sufficient oil. Once it was hot, I put the paratha in it very carefully so that it doesn't open up !! Once the bottom side started browning, I flipped it over and then waited till brown spots started coming up. Once the parathas were done, I drained excess oil and served with potato curry and onion slices. It felt soo good to have these after such a long time !!

Today is a very special day for me...... it's my parents' anniversary.....Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad !! :)

Let me know if you have already posted other versions of this great dish in your blogs, I could add the link here with this post.

Take Care... :)