May 15, 2010

Rasmalai for Indian Cooking Challenge

The Indian Cooking Challenge for April hosted by Srivalli of Spice your Life is Rasmalai from scratch. I have made rasmalai previously from scratch but this recipe was slightly different. This spongy, delicious rasmalai was a special treat for my mom for Mothers Day.


Ingredients:

Milk - 3 litres (2 litres for making paneer and 1 litre for making Milk syrup.)
Vinegar- 3 tblsp
Water-5 cups
Sugar- 16 tbsp (8 for Sugar Syrup and 8 for Milk Syrup)
Saffron- a pinch
Pista-10 finely chopped
All purpose flour- 1 tsp
Cardamon-2 (crushed)

Method:

1. Boil two litres of milk and let it cool.
2. Refrigerate the milk for 12 hours remove the thick layer of cream.
3. Boil the milk again and add vinegar till the milk seperates.
4. Strain the paneer in a muslin or a cheese cloth and hang it till all the whey is separated

Preparation of Paneer:

1. Knead the paneer well and add a spoon of all purpose flour to the paneer and make it as small balls.
2. Makes about 12 paneer balls.

Preparation of Sugar Syrup:

1. In a pressure pan add three cups of water and eight table spoons of sugar and let it boil.
2. When the water boils, add the paneer balls to it
3. Pressure cooked for ten minutes in slow flame for two whistles
4. Open the cooker and let the steam out and open the cooker
5. The paneer balls will be double in size
6. Press the paneer balls to drain the excess sugar syrup

Preparation of Milk Syrup:

1. Boil one litre of milk in a wide bottomed vessel till it is reduced to half of the quantity.
2. Add eight table spoons of sugar, saffron and crushed cardamom to it and mix well.
3. Add the paneer balls into the milk syrup.
4. Cool it refrigerate it.
5. Garnish with chopped pistachios