Ingredients:
Whole Milk - 6 cups
Lemon juice - 3 tablespoons
Curd - 2 tablespoons
Sugar - 2 cups
Water - 4 cups
Cardamon powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Cloves - 1 no
Method:
- Mix curd and lemon juice together in a bowl. Boil milk, when it starts to foam and raise, reduce the flame to medium and add curd-lemon juice mix and keep stirring. The milk starts curdling and whey separates, keep stirring until you get clear whey. Switch off the stove.
- Spread a muslin cloth/cheese cloth(Make sure its big enough to get tied up) and drain the curdled milk. Now bring the edges of the cloth together and immerse it(up and down process) in a bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water. Slightly rub the bag so that it releases the lemon juice flavor and bring the curdled milk together to a ball. Squeeze water well and tie the bag.
- Now on a flat plate, first place the sack, then a tawa or plate and finally some heavy weight. This helps to squeeze all excess water. Let it sit for 1 hour without any disturbance. Remove the paneer and place it on a flat surface. Scramble and knead using your palm for 10 minutes. You can feel the paneer getting soft. Make them to equal-sized balls by rolling in your hand.
- In a pressure cooker(Wide enough) boil sugar and water. When bubbles starts to form, add Cardamon powder, clove and paneer balls(one by one) slowly and pressure cook for 1 whistle. After a whistle, reduce the flame to low and let it heat for another 5 minutes. Switch off and let the pressure come down.
- We can see the rasugulla's doubled in their size. Replace the rasugullas carefully to another bowl, cool down completely. Refrigerate for 2 hours minimum before serving(I refrigerated it for a whole night).
My Notes:
- Wash the paneer well to avoid lemon taste in rasugullas.
- Squeeze the maximum to drain the water and then place a weight.
- You can use the whey water for making chappathi batter.
- Kneading the dough is a very important step to get the rasugullas soft.
- My friend's mother suggested to add a teaspoon of maida and stir after kneading the paneer. This helps rasugulla's to be a bit firm and withstands its round shape.
- If you feel the paneer is very much drained or is not binding while making balls, then drizzle some drops of water alone and knead again.
- Please make sure to use a wide cooker or pan as rasugulla's expand after cooking.
- Do replace rasugulla's to another bowl after cooking to avoid over heating.
- We can also prepare them in a large pan by simply closing them for 10 to 15 minutes after paneer balls are added.
- When rasugullas are cooked they are extremely soft but will get firm after refrigerating.
