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!
Hi Sue,
Chana as in chana dal in rasgulla? I’m not sure where you get that ingredient from in rasgulla. Maybe I am missing something. I think when making paneer for the rasgullas I’ve always been told to use whole milk as opposed to the less fat versions (i.e. 2%, 1%,etc…) For what ever reason it seems to work out better that way but maybe I am wrong. I’m just going by what my Indian friends & family have told me. But as far as when you say chana… I’m confused.
Liane, she is referring to “chenna” which is paneer that is being used in sweets. Chana is not spelled right when referring to chenna. There is only a very slight variation in pronunciation between the two, yet the meaning is different.
Hi ,
To be more precise Chana is the actual word for Panner in bangla/ Bengali.
Hi Aunty,
I made Rasmalai with vinegar instead of lemon juice. I put the chana in a food processor instead of kneading with hand. Then I pressure cooked. When I opened the cooker, they all stuck together and the texture was like spunge. I am not sure what went wrong. I used 2% organic milk.
Thanks,
Sue
Aunty,
I tried Rasgulla twice, but it become hard each time. Could you Provide any tip to make them soft.
Swati,
May be you used too much lemon juice to make paneer that can dry up and make paneer hard, or may be you squeeze the paneer for very long and paneer was too dry last make sure you had knead the paneer until your palm has became little greasy.
Hope this will help you.
You are fantastic
Hello Aunty I am really grateful to you , as I saw your Rasgulla video on Youtube and in the very first trial of my Rasgulla making I got perfect Rasgullas. Thankyou so much you elucidate each and every step so well……. would love to have more recipes from you .
hello aunty.. i do not have pressure cooker, so can u suggest me how long it may take if i try to make then in a pot ?
Hello,aunty.i.am.new.to.kitchen.but.i.made.dishes.successfully.by.following
your.website.thank.you.aunty.
Hello,Aunty.your.dishes.are.really.fabulous.I.tried.panipuri.and.rasgulla.andmy.family.felt.really.happy.by.seeing.me.making.dishes.Thankyou.so.much.aunty.
[...] balls or paneer in a cold syrup. It is quite simple, although it takes awhile. I used a recipe from Manjula’s Kitchen. If you haven’t visited her blog, you should. Great recipes and very helpful step by step [...]
Dear Manjula Aunty
I tried the Rasgulla recipe and they turned out perfect. The first time I had tried back in 2002, my friend just asked me to hang the paneer till all the whey was gone. But that was not sufficient to take all the water out and most of the rasgullas broke. With your approach, I got perfectly round rasgullas that did not break and was all cooked. My 3 year old son loved it. The only thing was that they had a slight hint of lemon, but I enjoyed that too just as well. Especially, on day 3, they tasted very very yummy!! Thank you so much!