Bengali Rasogollas; Pop them and Relish!

The specialty of Bengal cuisine has its own charm. You may have tasted rasogollas made in any other way than the Bengali way, but this traditional recipe will blow your mind away. This Kolkata sweet specialty is something which every local loves and every tourist with the minimal knowledge about the city has heard of and therefore hankers after.

From cricketers to NRIs to the big wigs, everybody has had theirs packed, eaten or ordered. The humble little delicacy has scaled new heights of popularity. If you want to bring the uniqueness of Bengal on to your dinner spread or if you are one estranged Bengali pining to revisit your roots read on.

Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

* Full Cream Milk: ½ litre

* Sugar: ¾ cup

* Lemon Juice: ½ tablespoon or Curd: 2 tablespoon

* Ice-cubes: 4 or 5

* Water: 1& ¾ cup

* Cardamom Powder: ½ tsp

* Pistachios: 4 chopped very finely for garnishing

Preparation: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 10-15 minutes

Serves: 12 small rasogollas

Method of Preparation Rasogollas:

* In order to curdle the milk, boil and add lemon juice to the boiling milk.

* Stir without stopping till the whey water can be seen clearly

* Once, the milk has curdled completely, switch off the gas and drop the ice cubes into the container

* Once the cubes have melted completely, strain the panir in a muslin cloth and let it hang for a good 30 minutes

* After this, the crumbly panir needs to be kneaded really well so that they can be given the shape of lemon sized balls

* In a wide bottomed pan add sugar and cardamom powder and keep stirring till the sugar dissolves fully

* When the sugar syrup comes to a boil, add the balls, few at a time, they would keep moving to the corners, bring them in the centre of the pan.

* Be gentle with them and cook them for 10 minutes with a closed lid on a medium flame opening to inspect every few minutes; allow the vapor to pass or the syrup will ooze out

* Once they are visibly twice their size, cool them completely; you could chill them too for some time and decorate it with pistachios and serve to your guests

Some of the important things that you must keep in mind to get the best results : EXPERT TIPS

Make sure that the hung panir is washed well under the tap while inside the muslin cloth to get rid of the lemon smell. Alternatively, use curd or whey water retained from earlier preparations to curdle the milk.

Also, during the kneading stage, make sure that the panir is smooth when made into balls; this will stop them from cracking while they get cooked. Keep the temperature while cooking the balls at a medium- low heat, this facilitates the texture.

An absolute favorite for people all over the world who know about it- the rasogollas are high on its protein content and is a treat for the taste buds too!