Ras Malai

The discs are cooked in syrup and then lifted out of it into milk, which is what they are served in.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

• 2 litres whole milk, for the chhena
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 300 g sugar
• 1 litre water, for poaching
• 1 litre whole milk, for the malai
• 80 g sugar, for the malai
• a generous pinch of saffron
• 6 cardamom pods, seeds ground
• 1 tablespoon rose water
• 60 g pistachios, chopped

Method

1. THE DISCS ARE COOKED IN SYRUP AND THEN LIFTED OUT OF IT INTO MILK, WHICH IS WHAT THEY ARE SERVED IN. Its article gives the sequence and the move at the end is the dish: milk is curdled with a little lemon juice, the whey discarded, the chhena drained, cooled and KNEADED INTO A DOUGH, divided into small balls, and the balls COOKED IN A SUGAR-WATER MIX -- and THEN SOAKED IN MILK flavoured with saffron, pistachios, rose water or cardamom. Its own name says the same thing twice over: rosh for sap and malai for clotted cream. A rasgulla, which is a page here, is poached the same way and STAYS in its syrup. This one is taken out of it.
2. THEY ARE FLATTENED, WHICH ITS ARTICLE SPECIFIES. FLATTENED balls of chhena. A disc about a centimetre thick soaks milk from both faces; a sphere keeps a dry core.
3. THE CHHENA IS KNEADED TO A DOUGH WITH NO GRAIN IN IT. Its article says kneaded into a dough. Eight to ten minutes with the heel of the hand, until it is smooth and slightly tacky.
4. THE POACHING SYRUP IS THIN AND THERE IS A LOT OF IT. Three hundred grams of sugar to a litre of water. The discs double, and a shallow pan crowds them into each other.
5. THEY POACH COVERED AT A ROLLING BOIL FOR TWELVE TO FIFTEEN MINUTES. The lid matters -- steam cooks the tops, which are above the syrup once they rise.
6. THEY ARE SQUEEZED GENTLY AS THEY COME OUT. Pressed flat between two palms to expel the syrup, which makes room for the milk. Skip this and they taste of syrup and nothing else.
7. THE MALAI IS REDUCED BEFORE THEY GO IN. A litre of milk down to about seven hundred millilitres with the sugar, stirred, then the saffron and cardamom.
8. THE ROSE WATER GOES IN COLD. Off the heat, once the milk has cooled.
9. THEY SOAK SEVERAL HOURS AND ARE SERVED COLD. Overnight is better. They should be heavy with milk and keep their shape.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes