Double Treat- Rasgulla and Rasmallai

Rasgullas when I hear this word my mouth waters and it always bring back my memories with bengalis during my childhood days. I have only eaten this sweet in either bengali homes or in homes where my friends parents had east indian origin. Rasgullas literally means juicy balls....I know it sounds corny...but if u can excuse the people who named this sweetmeat I guess it is one of the delicious sweets you will ever eat. My mom who is a superb cook has never made it herself. This led me to the belief that it very difficult to make. But as I tried it a few times to figure out the correct recipe it is one of the simplest recipes I have ever made. Rasmalai is simple variation of normal rasgullas. The only difference is that in rasgullas the cheese balls dipped sugar syrup but in rasmalai it is dipped in sweetened milk.

Ingredients:

For Gullas:

1. 1/2 liter full fat milk( to make cheena or cottage cheese).
2. 2 tbsp white vinegar.

For Sugar Syrup:

1. 2 cups of Sugar.
2. 4 cups of water.
3. 2-3 drops of rose essence(may exclude this if you don't like the smell).

For Sweetened Milk:

1. 2 cups of Milk.
2. 1 tin (14 oz.) condensed milk.

Preparing Gullas or Cheese Balls:

1. boil the 1/2 liter full fat milk.
2. when the milk comes to boil , remove from flame and add the 2 tbsp of white vinegar to the milk to curdle it.
3. Cook for about 15 minutes maintaining the temperature at 185ºF. Higher temperature will make it cheese hard and rubbery like Paneer. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool for five minutes.
   
4. Line a colander with fine cheesecloth or I use a large handkerchief (clean one). Transfer the contents into the lined colander. Now use the four ends of the handkerchief to make knots and hand it some place to drain the liquid for an hour.
5. now open the knotts and remove the drained cheese lump.
6. kneed this lump in a wok for five minutes into a smoother and finer lump.
7. Make balls of cheese of the desired size of rasgullas.

Preparing Sugar Syrup:

1. Mix 4 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar in a bowl.
2. Bring it boil and keep boilling for 15 min to make a thin sugar syrup.

Finishing Touches to Rasgullas:

1. Add the cheese balls to the boilling sugar syrup.
2. Cover the bowl with a perforated plate and allow the cheese balls to pressure cook at this same temperature in the boiling syrup for 10-15 minutes.
3. Remove the bowl from fire and allow it to cool for 10 mintues. Add the 2-3 drops of rose essence to the syrup.
4. Refrigerate and serve the dessert on any occasion.
   

For sweetened milk :

1. Mix the milk and condensed milk together.
2. Boil the mixture for about 5 minutes.
   

Finishing Touches to Rasmalai:

1. Bring about 4 cups water to boil .
2. Add the cheese balls to the boilling water.
3. Cover the bowl with a perforated plate and allow the cheese balls to pressure cook at this same temperature in the boiling water for 10-15 minutes.
4. Remove the bowl from fire and allow it to cool for 10 mintues.
   
5. Remove the cooked cheese balls from the water and squeeze them to remove water in them.
6. Now add these cooked cheese balls to the sweetened milk and cook them for about 10 minutes.
7. allow the mixture to cool and Refrigerate the rasmalai before serving.
   
8. To decorate you can add chopped up almonds and pistachios.
   

Besan Ke Laddu /kadala maavu orandai / farina de pois chiche boule

I Like these laddus for their crunchiness. Hope u would enjoy them too...on ur big and small occasions.

Ingredients:

1. 200 gms Besan/ Gramflour/ chichpeak flour .
2. 2 cups of sugar .
3. 100 gms of ghee/nayyi/clarified butter.
4. 50 gms of oil.
5. 2-3 pods of ilaichi/elakai/cardamom.
6. 10 - 15 kaju/ mundri /cashews halves.
7. 10-15 dried grapes/ draksh.

Method:

1. Take the seed out from the cardamom pods and grind them to powder using pestle. Keep aside.
2. Take a wok or pan, heat it on a low-medium heat.
3. Add ghee and oil mixture to pan/wok.
4. When u can smell the ghee, add cashew halves to it.
5. now keep stirring and observe the color of the cashews.
6. Add besan when the cashews turn light golden brown.
7. mix besan, dried grapes, ghee+oil and cashew mixture well.
8. cook this mixure till the besan changes its color and u see the ghee separating from the besan slightly.
9. Take the pan/wok off the flame and allow it to cool till the mixture cools down(warm to touch).
10. now add the cardamom powder and sugar to the mixture .
11. mix everything well so that cardamom and other things are uniformly distributed.
12. Take some amount of this mixture in ur palm and form balls.
13. place them in a small plate and allow it to cool completely.
14. store in a dry and air tight container.
15. Enjoy!!!!!!!

My Recommendations:

1. Keep a close watch on the besan while cooking.
2. Keep stirring to avoid burning besan.
3. Buy a coarse variety of besan for these laddus (I have tried these laddus with both smooth and coarse besan ..I like coarse besan better ...as it gives more depth to laddus)

Chocolate Brownies with Almonds..Yummm!!!!!

Mummmm.....Brownies...I think a good part my adult life has been spent being a chocolate addict..I can eat almost anything that has chocolate in them. Whenever and wherever I have a craving for eating or buying something to eat I usually end up buying chocolate. Chocolate brownies are a big part of this spiritual saga. As I have been splurging good part of my money on brownies, I thought of trying to make some of my own. So guys lets get going .......

Ingredients:

1. 12 oz. Hershey's semisweet chocolate.
   
2. 1 stick butter (unsalted).
3. 2 eggs.
   
4. pinch of salt.
5. 1 cup of all purpose flour.
6. about half cup of chopped almonds.
7. 1 tea spoon of vanilla extract.
   
8. 1 1/3 cup of sugar.
9. 2-3 toothpicks.
10. one 8x8 cake pan.
11. 2 medium sized bowl for mixing ingredients.

Method:

1. Start the oven to heat to about 350 degrees F.
   
2. Fill some water in a medium sized vessel.
3. heat this water almost to boil.
4. take it off the fire.
5. put the stick of butter( leave some small portion to butter the pan) and about 6 oz of chocolate pieces in a small china bowl.
6. place this bowl in the bath of water. (Make sure the water is low enough and would not get mixed with the butter and chocolate. keep stirring the contents in the bowl occasionally & till the whole chocolate and butter mixture melts down.
7. Now add all the sugar to the chocolate and butter mixture but keep mixing the sugar...to form a uniform smooth liquid.
   
8. add vanilla extract to this mix.
9. now add eggs one by one into this chocolate butter mix...but beat the eggs into this mixture before adding the next one.
   
10. in another bowl sieve 1 cup of all purpose flour and the pinch of salt.
11. now add this flour to the chocolate and butter mix slowly and keep folding the flour to mix it in with the chocolate and butter evenly.
12. Grease the 8x8 cake pan with the left over butter evenly.
13. pour the whole batter into it and place it in the preheated 350 degree oven ...medium rack for about 25 min.
14. add the remaining chocolate pieces and chopped almonds into the mixture and mix well.
    
15. After 25 min check the brownies by inserting the toothpick in the middle to see if the brownies are almost done* ...
16. take the pan out and let it cool for about 1 hour .
17. take out the brownie and cut it into pieces to eat.
    

(*) - if u see chocolate liquid on ur toothpick-NOT DONE
- if u see moist lumps of chocolate on ur toothpick-ALMOST DONE
- if u see a clean tooth pick -OVER DONE

NOTE: Keep the brownies outside the refrigerator to keep them soft and moist.
Variation: add walnuts or pecans or pistachios....

Yummy Malpua's

Malpua is one of the very popular north indian sweet during holi "Festival of Colour". This was the first time I tried making it. I got the recipe from my mother in law and They turned out to be yummy and very easy to make.

INGREDIENTS:

1. 1 cup sooji/ semolina/rava.
2. 1.5 cups maida/all purpose flour.
3. Milk .
4. 250 gms Oil or ghee.
5. 600 gms of sugar .
6. 2.5 cups of water.
7. pinch of baking powder.
8. 1 teaspoon ilaichi/cardamom (powdered).
   

METHOD FOR PUA'S:

1. Mix sooji, maida, milk, cardamom and baking powder into a batter of beaten yogurt consistency.
2. Place it in a warm area to let it rise for about 6-8 hours.
   
3. Heat oil or ghee or mix of both in the pan.
   
4. When oil is starts lightly smoking take a spoon ful of batter and put it in the oil to form disks.
5. Remove when golden brown.
6. Soak them immediately in the sugar syrup for about 5 minutes.
   
7. Remove and place them on a mesh to drain the excess syrup.
   

METHOD FOR SUGAR SYRUP:

1. In a large vessel mix sugar and water.
2. Keep heating and stirring it using a spoon.
3. Keep testing the sugar syrup's consistency using the syrup sticking to the back of your spoon.
4. When the syrup from the spoon makes a strand between ur fingers remove from fire.
   

Decorate the Malpua's with sliced almonds and pistas.

Note: If you want to add a special taste to your malpua add few fennel seeds to it while making the batter... they taste superb.