Chhena Rasgulla

Take 1.5 lt cow milk in a heavy-bottomed vessel. Bring it to boil. Cow milk is best for preparing chhena. Avoid using skimmed milk or milk in tetra packs. As soon as the milk boils, simmer the flame. Take 4 tablespoons of vinegar and add 4 tablespoons of water to it. Now pour the mixture gradually in boiling milk and keep stirring using a spatula. Lemon juice can also be added instead of Vinegar. Another option is curd/yogurt. Add 4 to 5 tbsp of yogurt or more if required. With yogurt, you don’t need to rinse the chenna in the water later.

After adding vinegar, milk will start curdling. As soon as the milk curdles, switch off the flame. The milk should curdle completely with the green watery whey.

Now pour the curdled milk in the muslin lined strainer or bowl. Reserve the whey and add it to your chapati dough or in dals or curries. The whey is very nutritious, so don’t discard it. Wash the chhena with water. This process will remove the flavor of vinegar and tangy taste from the chenna. Now squeeze the muslin cloth with your hands very well, so that excess water is drained from the chenna. Hang it on kitchen tap for 30 mins to extract excess water from it. Note that the chenna should not have too much moisture nor be too dry as then the rasgulla will break when cooking.

The kneading process is very important. Chenna has to be kneaded until it turns smooth and uniform without any grains. When you feel your palms becoming a bit greasy, it's time to stop. Don't over knead the chhena.

Add one tablespoon of all purpose flour (maida) or cornflour to chhena and knead it again. With the heels of your palms mash the chenna and knead. Keep on collecting the chenna from the sides and continue to mash and knead.

Divide the dough into equal portions to make crack free smooth chhena balls.

Now take a small portion of chhena and roll it between your palm, give it round shape like a ball. Don't make them large as they will double in size when cooked.

Prepare all chhena balls. Cover all the chenna balls with a moist muslin or kitchen towel and keep aside.

Use a large pot or pan to prepare chashni so that there is enough space for the rasgulla to cook and increase in size. Add 400gm sugar and 1.5 lt water to make sugar syrup. Bring it to boil. Stir so that the sugar dissolves. Add Cardamom pods in sugar syrup. You may add cardamom powder as well. but I prefer Cardamom pods as it keeps the syrup clean.

As soon as sugar syrup starts boiling and bubbling, gently add chhena balls gradually one after another.

Keep the flame high in the beginning 10 minutes and keep the pan totally covered so that vapours should not come out easily. The key step is to maintain the heat steadily. The time to cook rasgulla will vary depending on the thickness & quality of the pan, the size of the pan, and the intensity of the flame. So the time range can be somewhere between 8 to 12 minutes.

The rasgulla will puff and double in size. If you keep the lid open for a long time, they will shrink. Always keep the pot covered before turning off the flame. do not open the lid until temperature comes down.

There are two ways to check the rasgullas are cooked properly or not. 1. If the rasgulla sinks to the bottom of the vessel and stays there, its cooked. If the rasgulla does not settle down at the bottom and floats on top of the sugar syrup, then you need to cook them further. 2. Press the rasgulla with your finger. If the rasgulla bounces back to its original shape, its done. 3.Don't overcook them. Over cooking may turn rasgulla rubbery or chewy.