Rasmalai

The story of learning how to make Rasmalai started about five years ago. Our family had gone to one of our friend's house for her son's second birthday party. M had made these yummies for the dessert. For some reason, I was under the impression that this was one of the sweets which was hard to make at home. When I saw this on the b'day menu, I was astonished to know that this could be made at home. I have not experimented much with desserts even though my husband and son both have a sweet tooth. I expressed my desire of learning to my friend after the party and she mentioned that she could do the demo sometime. My motivation was not strong enough to pursue my learning desire immediately as I continued my life journey through pregnancy, delivery, and sleepless nights with the infant for the second time.

Over the years, my life became extremely busy with an infant/toddler at home, going to school to earn MBA, spend time with my daughter and husband, and other things. Balancing home, work and school became my top priority and this desire had completely vanished from my mind. But it still used to peep in my brain to remind me whenever I ate Rasmalais at a party or at a restaurant. Having a desire without having much free time on hand was not helping me at all. I thought this was one of those things which I would get over it eventually.

This was the case until last year when we met again in one of the b'day parties. I reminded my friend M about my desire. It was really amusing to her because I had expressed it numerous times but never made an effort to learn. I made a plan with her to meet on Veteran's day at her house. Again, that plan didn't work out as my project at work was going on a roller coaster ride and I had to work overtime hours averaging about 60 to 70 hours a week which really sucked. Since I was taking time-off in December, I thought I could do it then, but that didn't work out either. Finally this desire to learn became a reality on Feb. 14^th 2010 at M's place.

Thanks M for doing the demo and teaching me how to make these goodies! I appreciate your time and patience during the whole process. Okay, okay ! I will end my story here and get into the recipe before you all yell at me :-)

Step 1:

Pour half gallon milk into a pan and let it boil until it reaches the boiling point. When the milk has reached this point, turn off the stove and add 1 scoop of lime juice. Stir the milk after adding lime juice for a minute or so. Allow the mixture to settle down for about 5 minutes.

Tip #1: Make sure you add the right quantity of lime juice; my friend indicated adding more than required makes the Paneer hard.

Once it has settled down, drain the mixture using a cheese cloth spread over a colander. Squeeze the residue hard to remove the remaining water.

Tie the cheese cloth containing paneer to a faucet and let it stay for at least two hours but not more than five hours. The reason being paneer has to retain right amount of water so that it is neither too soft nor too dry.

Step 2:

While you are waiting for paneer to be ready, you can get started with step 2. Soak about handful of cashews in water for about 30 mins or so.

Take about half a gallon of milk in a thick vessel and start the boiling process. The boiling process should continue until the milk thickens. Meanwhile, grind the soaked cashews to form a paste. Once the milk has reached a thick consistency, switch off the stove and allow it to cool.

Now, add the cashew paste to the milk and the following ingredients: saffron, pista, elaichi, sugar (about two cups but you can adjust according to your taste).

After getting the milk syrup ready as shown above and while we wait for the residue, there is one more thing you can get started with for Step 3.

Fill one of the pressure cooker containers with a sugar syrup which is made up of 2 ½ cup of water and 1 ½ cup of sugar. Depending on the quantity of rasmalais you are making, you may need to make the sugar syrup in more than one container.

Step 3:

Later when the paneer residue is all set to use, transfer the residue to a big plate and start kneading to make a soft and smooth dough.

Tip #2: Paneer residue should not be too hard or soft. If it is too soft, paneer discs may not puff up during osmosis process and being dry make the discs hard.

Tip #3: Make sure you knead the dough well as this helps in preventing the Rasmalai discs to crack later.

Make small discs out of the dough and put it in a sugar syrup and pressure cook it for one whistle. After one whistle, cook for about five to seven minutes on a medium flame.

Once it gets cooked, the disc should double in size. Take out the discs from the syrup and put it on a plate to cool down.

Squeeze out the water from the disc and drop it in the milk syrup prepared in Step 2.

Warm the milk slightly with the discs floating in it.

Yummy Yummy Rasmalais are ready to serve! Chill the Rasmalais before serving for best results.