Bengali Sweet - Rasogolla || Salma (Kolkata) Recipe

My recipe to make Rasogolla (রসগোল্লা) at home

Time needed 30 - 45 minutes

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Ingredients (for Rasogolla)

• 1 liter pure cow milk or Full cream packed milk
• 1 teaspoon maida (white flour)
• 1 teaspoon milk powder
• 1 teaspoon rose water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 lemon or 100 gm yogurt
• 25 gm Nakuldana
• piece of clean cotton cloth

Ingredients (for Syrup)

• 1.5 liter water
• 500 - 600 gm sugar

Method

First prepare the chana (cottage cheese) for Rasogolla

1. Boil the milk in a big pan
2. When the milk is starts boiling, slowly squeeze the lemon juice or put yogurt into the milk  bit by bit till the milk solids separates out from milk. You will milk solids and greenish clear liquid left.
3. Stop boiling, wrap the milk solids in a clean cotton cloth and clean it with cold water (You can use tap water), so the cooking process stops immediately. It will also help to remove the sour stain of the lemon juice added. [Cooking process has to be stopped immediate to prevent curd becoming hard, good rasogolla needs soft chana (cottage cheese)]
4. After cooling and cleaning of chana, squeeze out all the water from chana. So, the chana is dry.

Making rasogolla balls

1. Take a big plate and start smashing the chana with finger tips. The target is to make a silky smooth dough without any granules.
2. Do not put too much pressure else oil will come out from the chana before it gets smooth. [It took me 10 minutes for this process]
3. When the cheese get smooth, mix 1 teaspoon maida , 1 teaspoon milk powder and 1 teaspoon sugar to the dough and re-smoothen it out. If you like, you can put rose water. Remember to mix it well. The better the smudging process is, the more better the rasogolla will be.
4. Take small chunk of chana, place a nakuldana inside it and give a shape of a ball. To make balls, put the chana between your palms and roll it. A good ball will have glossy surface and no visible cracks.

Cooking rasogolla

1. Take 1.5 liter water in a big kadai.
2. Put 500 gm sugar in the water and start boiling on high flame. The sugar will melt in it. You may find dirt from sugar coming out and mixing with the syrup. To clean out the dirt, put some milk in the boiling syrup, you will notice the dirt along with the milk forms a floating sludge like, remove it from the syrup. Keep on boiling till the liquid is little dense. 
3. Lower the flame to medium and start putting the chana balls in the boiling syrup. Be careful that the balls do not break.
4. Now, cover the kadai with a lid and allow it to boil for 20 minutes without any disturbance.
5. After 20 odd minutes, take a rasogolla ball to check if the cooking is complete. The ball will become very soft and spongy. On pressing the ball, it will squeeze out and on releasing the pressure it will again inflate. If you drop the ball in a plain glass of water, it will submerged.
6. Turn off the flame. Sprinkle a cup of water to stop the cooking process. And allow the rasogollas to remain in the syrup for about 2 hours. No, harm if you keep them for longer duration. Your rasogolla is ready to be served!

Making rasogolla looks extremely simple, but to master it, it will need patience and time.