Ras Malai
December 2nd, 2007 filed under Desserts
Rasmalai 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:
Paneer:
- Mix lemon juice in half a cup of hot water and keep aside.
- Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed over medium-high heat, stirring frequently making sure milk do not burn on the bottom of the pan.
- As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice slowly and stir the milk gently. The curd will start separting 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, 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.
- 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 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. Your palm will be little greasy.
Making the Rasmalai:
- Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll them in smooth balls.
- To make the balls apply some prassure at the first and then release when forming the balls, lightly press to make about 3/4″ patty shape.
- 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 cooker is large enough to accommodate the finished rasgullas patties, as they will expand to about double in the volume while cooking in the syrup!
- Close the heat and wait a few minutes befor opening the pressure cooker. Pour cold water over the cooker before opening.
- Take out the patties from the syrup and squeeze them lightly,and keep aside.
- Boil the milk in a frying pan on medium heat until the milk reduce to about 2 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 in milk. Let it cook for few minutes.
- Add the cardamom and mix in. Garnish with sliced almonds and pistachios.
- Serve the Rasmalai chilled.
Hi Manjula Masi,
do you have a recipe for shrikhand and also can we use fruits like pomegranite, grapes, apples, what others fruit can i add to shrikand?
thanks
Hello Shayri,
Like I mentioned before cooking is more fun when you experiment with the flavors you like
how to make rus gula please can u post for that i did n t find on u r site recipe for that
pls am enjoy u r recipe Manjula everyday…
The recipe for “rasgullas” is already available under the DESSERT category.
I am not of Indian descent, but I must be in spirit. I LOOOOVE indian food. My friends make fun of me ’cause I eat at an Indian restaurant every single day!!.. I’ve watched your videos, and they are fantastic. I now can practice my Indian food at home. Thank you sooooo much. This is such a great idea. Showing us videos of how to cook… Very, very grateful. So you know I will be watching this site often and trying out all my favorite food. Thanks
Hi aunty ji,
I want to make ras malai first time, but I couldn’t understand ur ingredients quantity. There are 4 cups of milk needed. Can I measure with standard cup or please tell me how many gms. come in one cup ?
Thanks for amazing recipies.
sarb (Australia)
For this recipe, one cup = 320ml by volume, not weight.
Hello again!
I want to make rasmalai & rasgulla……both are my favorite dishes….but I jus want to know how much water & how much sugar I shud mix for syrup. I mean sugar-water to boil the cheese bolls. Pl. help me for this, so tht I can make these dishes today.
your fan
Pooja.
Pooja, check the recipe for rasgulls.
Thanks manjulaji.
Thank you for this recipe! I love Ras Malai and it’s very difficult to find where I live. Turns out it’s very easy to make. I’ll recommend this site to all the indian food lovers I know.
Hello Manjula ji, hope you are well. So far i’ve made ras malai twive, gulab jamun, samosa and i used your biryani method but made chicken biryani. My confidance in cooking hasten folded thanks to your directonsand simple instructions for us novices. Our ramadhan is even morespecial thisyear.
Can you teach how to make koya please.
love samia. uk
Thanks for the grate recipe. i have made ras malai and it was amazing.
hi manjula, i have made the rasmalais twice now and the second time i made them i was doing it for a lot of people so i made about triple the amount and i used about six lemons and the patties tasted just a tad lemony, should i have used just a 1/4 of a cup of lemons?
Use only enough lemon juice to seperate the milk. Pour it slowly into the boiled milk. Once you see the curds start to seperate, then stop. Doubling or tripling the milk for paneer does not automatically translate to doing the same for the lemon as you have learned. Good luck next time.
Personally, I use plain distilled vinegar for making paneer as it doesn’t leave a flavor in the paneer.
Hi Manjulaji
Thank You so much for this resipi