Bengali Rasgulla
November 22nd, 2007 filed under Desserts
Rasgullas are homemade cheese or paneer balls soaked in chilled sugar syrup. This recipe is made using a pressure cooker.
Makes 12 rasgullas
Ingredients:
- 4 cups milk
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 1/2 cups water
- Pressure cooker
Method:
Paneer:
- Mix lemon juice in half cup of hot water and keep aside.
- Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, making sure not to burn milk.
- As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice gradually and stir the milk gently. The curd will start separating from the whey, turn off the heat.
- Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, drain the whey using a strainer line with cheesecloth or muslin cloth.
- Wrap the curd in a muslin cloth, and rince under cold water, and squeeze well. This process takes out the sourness from the lemon.
- To take out the excess water squeeze the cloth, or press the wrapped paneer under a heavy pan for about one hour.Taking the right amount of water out of the paneer is the most important part of this recipe.
- To check if enough water is out of the paneer, take a little piece of paneer on your palm and rub with your fingers. After rubbing the paneer for about 15-20 seconds, you should be able to make a firm but smooth ball.
- Once the paneer is drained, place on a dry, clean surface and knead the paneer for 3-4 minutes until the paneer is almost rolls into smooth soft dough.
- Knead the paneer by dragging the palm of your hand hard on the paneer. Keep scooping it back to togather and knead more. If the paneer is too crumbly, add a teaspoon of water. Your palm will be little greasy.
Rasgulla:
- Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll them into smooth balls.
- To make the balls apply some pressure at the first and then release when forming the balls.
- Mix the sugar and water in a pressure cooker on medium high heat and bring to a boil.
- Add the paneer balls and close the pressure cooker. After the pressure cooker starts steaming, turn the heat to medium and cook for about seven minutes.
- Make sure the pressure cooker is large enough to accommodate the finished Rasgullas, as they will expand to about double in the volume while cooking in the syrup.
- Close the heat and wait a few minutes before you opening the pressure cooker. Pour cold water over the pressure cooker before opening.
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Rasgullas should be little spongy. After rasgullas are refrigerated the sponginess will reduce and will be soft in texture.
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Serve the Rasgullas chilled.
Suggestions:
- If the Rasgullas don’t turn out exactly the way you want, they are hard or not the right shape, do not worry. There’re many ways to create new dish out of the imperfect Rasgullas!
- For example, if the Rasgullas are too hard or broken, try cutting them into small pieces and mix with soft vanilla ice cream or cover with melted chocolate.
- You can use the Rasgulla pieces to make kheer, replacing rice with the Rasgulla pieces.
- The bottom line is to enjoy your creation!
Kindly tell me which preservative we can use for the preseravtion of rasgulla.
Hi Aunty,
Thanks a lot for this recipes of Bengali Rasgullas..I tried at home and in the first attempt the result was awesome….
Pls. upload more recipes.
Thanks
Dear Manjula auntie jee, (luv to call u that) I tried yr Rasgullas n they came out terrific n so many friends have tried after that n all r happy. (for all hard rasgulla outcomes)Guys I believe you have to leave paneer standing for 1-2 hrs before rolling them into rasgullas…maybe it will solve the issue…:)
Hi Aunty,
i tried this one but………..i made the paneer as u showed but it did not increase in double
every thing went very well like paneer and sugar syrup and the texture of the paneer was like ur paneer but…..still dont know i did same as u like pressure cook for 7 min., and all but………….
Could u please tell me the reason why it did not double the size and instead of tht its lil..hard
Hi Manjula g i have tried alot alot alot of times rasgulas but i couldnt make them right always they turn out to be hard, and small and the sugar syrup wud not go in, so they are just burnt paneer balls cud you pls tell me what am i doing wrong? i tried to make paneer with lemon and vingar but it is not helping me much.. paneer is wonderfull but rasgulas not :please tell me because i want make rasmlai.So if I know rasgulla I can make rasmlai.Thanks
Hi dear Manjula i am living in Malaysia and did not find Indian pressure cooker here, so please let me know what to do as a substitute of pressure cooker to make rusgulla soft.
hi manjula ji i have tried the rasgullas but i couldnt make them right. one thing i wanted to know that what is 2% milk. ihave tried of tetra pack milk. if it is tetra pack milk which company milk u r using.plz reply me soon i want my rasgullas should be perfect.thanx waiting for your reply.
How can I preserve rasgulla without fridge? I want to get it preserved till 6 months.
Nitin, You would have to have them vacuum sealed in a can (tin) or the plastic that doesn’t require refrigeration, but I don’t know where you could get that done. 6 months is a long time to try to keep anything that isn’t frozen or vacuum sealed.
You may need to add a preservative even if you vacuum seal them, and I’m not saying the rasgullas would taste good after 6 months, but vacuum sealing is standard in the food industry.
Just curious, but why do you want to keep them for so long?
hello aunty ,ur recipes are so easy and good .i m learnigh too much…..thanks for nice sharings
dearest Aunty
Ur receipes are too good and easy to make…I tried the Rasgulas its awesome . thanks a lot . u are great aunty to share the knowledge