Ras Malai
December 2nd, 2007 filed under DessertsRasmalai is a Bengali dessert consisting of soft paneer balls immersed in chilled creamy milk. Like Rasgullas, Rasmalai is also made with homemade cheese known as “paneer” or “chana”. Instead of being soaked in sugar syrup like Rasgullas, Rasmalai is soaked in sweet, flavored milk.
Makes 12.
Ingredients for Rasmalai Patties:
- 4 cups milk
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 1/2 cups water
- Pressure cooker
Ingredients for Milk mixture:
- 3 cups of milk
- 2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar (adjust to your taste)
- 1/8 teaspoon crush cardamom
- 1 tablespoon sliced almonds and pistachios to garnish
Method
To make the paneer or fresh Indian homemade cheese, heat the milk in a heavy pan on medium-high heat until the milk comes to a boil. Make sure to frequently stir the milk as it burns easily in bottom of the pan.
As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice slowly and stir the milk gently. When the milk starts to curdle, close the heat. Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, strain the milk into a cheesecloth or muslin cloth.
Pour some cold water over the paneer to take out the flavor of the lemon juice. Now strain the water out, squeezing the cloth. The water in the paneer needs to be squeezed just enough so that the paneer is not too dry. Taking the 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. If the paneer is too dry, add a few drops of water, using the water squeezed from the paneer.
Once the paneer is drained, place on a dry, clean surface and rub with your palm until the paneer becomes a smooth dough and your hands turn a little greasy.
Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll them in smooth balls. Slightly press so they are not round. To make the balls in your palms, you should apply some pressure at first and then release when forming the balls and slightly press to give a patty shape. The paneer patties should be about 1/4 inch thick.
Next to make the syrup, mix the sugar and water in a pressure cooker on medium high heat and bring to a boil. Add the paneer patties and close the pressure cooker. Make sure the cooker is large enough to accommodate the finished Rasmalai, as they will expand to about double their size while cooking in the syrup! Close the heat and wait a few minutes and open the pressure cooker under cold water. After all the steam escapes, open the pressure cooker. The Rasmalai should be a little spongy. Take the Rasmalai out from the syrup and lightly press to take some of the syrup out.
While the Rasmalai is getting ready, put the milk in a frying pan and boil on medium heat until the milk reduces to about two cups. Make sure to frequently stir the milk as the milk burns easily in bottom of the pan. Add the sugar and the Rasmalai patties. Boil in the milk for a few minutes. Add the cardamom and mix in. Garnish with sliced almonds and pistachios.
Serve the Rasmalai chilled.
Suggestions
If the Rasmalai doesn’t turn out exactly the way you want, you can create a new dish out of the Rasmalai. For example, if the Rasmalai is too hard or broken, try cutting them into small pieces and top with vanilla ice cream or cover with melted chocolate. You can use the Rasmalai pieces to make kheer, replacing rice with the Rasmalai pieces. The possibilities are endless. The bottom line is to be creative and enjoy your dish!
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August 26th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I have tried it n number of times and each time it comes out equally good. Really loved by my husband it’s easy to make , quick and delicious sweet dish.
August 17th, 2008 at 12:13 am
hi aunty ,
i tried this recepie it came really well thank u , awaiting for further more recepies from u
July 31st, 2008 at 1:20 pm
hello, thankyou for all your lovely recipes..i tried making rasmallai, one of my favourite desserts and it came out reasonably well..the only problem was, that the rasmallai came out a bit hard, and did’nt increase much in size after pressure cooking…how can i solve this problem?
July 21st, 2008 at 5:44 am
Thank You so ………..much for the wonderful recipe. I made it for the first time and it turned out to be a great hit. Everybody liked it very much…thx once again!
July 20th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Hi Aunty,
I’m from Singapore , my two year old daughter loves ras malai very much and every time i need to travel to indian sweet shop. Now I tried your Ras Malai recipe. I turned out well and was awesome, the malai’s just melted in the mounth. I used whole milk to make the Paneer and normal milk for the milk mixture. As you have mentioned in you recipe , the crucial part is getting the water out of the paneer. I squeezed hard and the patties were breaking and not able to make balls, then i added the extracted water little by little to make it into a dough and turned very well.
Now i have a dessert recipe for my guests. Thanks Aunty , this is the best Ras malai recipe i have come across.
July 11th, 2008 at 5:36 am
i just got ur website for youtube yesterday and was watching all the vidoes and today morning i tried this rasmalai and it came out so well ,the only difference i made is i didnt made paneer bought Ricotta chese from the Supermarket , my husband and kid loved it very much , i m really thankful to you for sharing such a good recepe
July 9th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Hello Shikha, after every batch you should add 1/8 cup of water but next batch rasamalai will get some color so I advice after 3 batches change the syrup for sure. before you refrigerate the rasmali they will be soaking in milk.
I always surve rasgulla or rasmalai chilled. Resmalai istill will be very soft and melt in mouth.
July 9th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I am planning to make rasmalai for a get-together..and I have to make around 40 rasamalai paties. I guess we can reuse the sugar syrup while making the rasmalai patties?…But
- After repeated use ..it will get thicker, i guess..should i add water, before making the next batch?
And I will make it day before, and will refrigerate..after rerigerating for 1 day ..it will lose the “melt in the mouth” quality….How can i gain back the softness of rasmalai?
-Should i put it in oven for sometime and cool it before serving,
or -any other method.
June 28th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Hi Marie, start with extra lemon juice and add slowley as you see milk has start to curdle anh whater has start seprating stop adding the lemon juice.
June 28th, 2008 at 2:59 am
The lemon juice tht u took looks more than 2 tblspn (+ 1 tblpn. water) - Is 2 tblpn. enough to curdle 4 cups of milk ? I am fed up of unsuccessfully trying rasmalai- but since I found your recipe good, I don’t want to fail again. Thanks for all the lovely videos. We look forward to more recipes from you.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:12 am
thats is easy
June 17th, 2008 at 10:11 am
THIA IS A VERY GOOD RECIPIE WITCH IS THE BEST RECIPIE I LIKE
June 11th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Oh, thank you for your website. Cooking vegetarian for me can be a challenge, but having your videos makes it so much fun! I’ve learned so much in just a few hours and your calm voice makes me more confident in trying new recipes….I’m off to cook my Moong Urad Dal now!–Sylvia
June 4th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Namaste aunty ji
u remind me of my mom in India.
I tried this ras malai recipe and it came out excellent, my husband just loved it!
I have tried rasgulla many times but this time i followed your recipe to the t and it came out very well, i am thankful to u for sharing with everyone.God Bless and thank u.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Can i use packed panner instead of the home made?4 cups means how many litres?
Thankyou?
May 15th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Thanks for creative ideas
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Hi dear Manjula my name is Beheshta i`m from Afghanistan and i leave in U.S.A love ur website Thanks for all ur hard work Ms Manjula i just got engage and i`m learning and your website made my life easy my lovely he loves all Indian desserts and ur website is helpful for me because to be a good wife i have make my husband and ur web site is one of my gool thanks be safe and happy always! thanks from Beheshta
April 29th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Hi Manjula,
My name is Tamara Nair, I am Puerto Rican, I want to thank you so much for your wonderful teachings in youtube due that I am married to an Indian from Kerala and my biggest fear was not able to cook Indian cuisine. I have done so many of your recipes and it comes out super great, I loved and enjoyed Indian food. I can considered myself an expert already. I did the ras malai without the pressure cooker because I am a little afraid of using the pressure cooker so I used a big pot and cover it with for a little more time and it came out just perfect just like yours. Thanks a million, please don’t stop teaching more of your terrific dishes, my husband is learning too, he does the gulab jamun better than me. Tamara
April 20th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Namaste aunti ji
My husband came across this receipe and he requested me to make it. One day i gave him surpise by making Rasgullas. It came out very good. Even yesterday i made Okra sabji from your receipe which was quick in cooking and tasted very good.
Thanks a lot,
Geeta
April 8th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Thank you for your response, Aunty-ji. I have another point. Yesterday I bought some cottage cheese. I got rid of the extra water, and then I mushed it and added cardamon powder and brown sugar. I cooked it in a pan for a couple of minutes, and then I put it in the fridge. When it hardened, it tasted like sondesh.
Do you think I can substitute cottage cheese or ricotta cheese for any of your cheese based recipes?
I know that cottage cheese does not stay solid when cooking (it turns to liquid).
But I would like your opinion.
Thank you so much. I am learning so much from your demonstrations! I have forgotten so much of my mother’s cooking, and now I am learning them again.
April 5th, 2008 at 8:09 am
I have not been able to make without pressure cooker sorry
April 4th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Aunty,
Can I make this recipe without a pressure cooker? I want to try and make this (I miss rashmalai so much), but I am in the U.S. and I don’t have a pressure cooker.
Thank you for this wonderful website!
March 29th, 2008 at 2:23 am
This is an amzing site! Well done.I have been looking for a rasmalai for many years and cant wait to try this.My father(deceased) used to by this for me when I was a little girl and I loved it.Now I can make it for my children!! So many of these recipes bring back so many memories and I cant wait to cook them!
Ayshea
March 18th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
you need to use whistle for better results.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Hi Manjula,
I sent you a mail already complimenting you for the wonderful rasgulla, rasmalai recipe and thanking you for teaching us.
I want to know if you use a pressure cooker, is it better to put the whistle or without the whistle? My rasgullas are spongy but I want them to look porous. What can I do to ensure that?
Also please give such demonstration for pani puri.
Please let me know.
Thanks & best regards,
Anu Singh
March 17th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Hi Manjula ji,
I am from Singapore and stumbled upon your website while on google.
I made kachoris & rasgulla, its amazing, the recipe succeeds!
Thanks a whole ton and I am recommending you to all my friends,
Anu