Description[]
- Ethnicity - Bengali, East Indian
- Type of meal - Party, Lunch, Dinner
Ingredients[]
milk Balls:
- Paneer (make only 1 portion of the recipe)
- 1/2 tsp. all purpose flour or semolina if available
- 2 dozen Sugar cubes
- Syrup to cook with:
- 1 1/4 cup Sugar
- 7 cups water
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cardamom pod
Syrup to soak in:
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 green cardamom pods
- 1 tsp. rose water or even orange blosson water
- 1 cup Sugar
- 4 cups of water
Directions[]
- Drain the paneer very well before use. You can even make the paneer the day before.
- Paneer made for Rasgullas should not be weighted down too much.
- There is no need to form a cube as you will be mashing it after.
- Drain for a half hour. In a large pan, mash the paneer till you have kneaded into a smooth dough.
- This should take around 10 minutes. The softer you make it, the better the end result.
- Spread the paneer into as fine a layer as possible, sprinkle the flour over the surface of paneer and knead well to mix it thoroughly. Let this kneaded dough rest for a few minutes.
- In a deep pan, maybe even a large pressure cooker, bring the 7 cups of water to a boil with the Sugar, bay leaf and cardamom pod in it.
- Bring the liquid to a boil, no more then 4 minutes, and then reduce to a very low flame to keep warm.
- To make the soaking syrup, bring the water to a boil with the Sugar, bay leaf, and cardamom.
- Boil for no more than 5 minutes and then turn the flame off. Add the scented water and keep this warm.
- Take some of the Cheese and make balls around 1 inch in diameter. Your goal should be to make around 2 dozen such balls.
- Make a depression in each of these balls with your finger and place a Sugar cube in each of these.
- Reshape into a smooth ball with no cracks at all.
- Raise heat for the soaking syrup, and bring it to a gentle simmer that is bubbling but not boiling.
- To this add the milk balls very carefully. You can even do this by putting them onto spoons and dropping them gently into the syrup.
- Cover the container once all the balls are placed into the syrup.
- Cook in this simmering syrup for about a half hour. The balls should have expanded in size and look more opaque.
- Remove these from this simmering syrup with a slotted spoon and gently place each of these into the soaking scented syrup.
- Once you have placed all of these into the syrup, let the syrup and the balls cool, and then cover and chill overnight.
- These will taste much better once the flavors have melded into the Cheese balls.
- The soaking in the syrup also makes the spongy balls become a little softer.