Angoori Rasmalai / Angoori malai chhena / Chhena Kheer / Chhena Payesh

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 the 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.

Add one pinch of food-grade yellow colour (optional) and mash it again.

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. We need to prepare small grapes sized balls as the name of recipe indicates angoori chhena. Prepare all chhena balls. Cover all the chenna balls with a moist muslin or kitchen towel and keep aside.

Since we are going to cook chhena balls in a pressure cooker so that there is enough space for the rasgulla to cook and increase in size, we will prepare sugar syrup or chashni in the pressure cooker. 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 put chhena balls in the sugar syrup gradually one after another. Keep the flame high in the beginning 10 minutes and let the pressure cooker release one whistle. Then lower the flame so that the cooker doesn't get whistle but the key step is to maintain the heat steadily. After 5 minutes put off the flame and let it cool down gradually. When the pressure cooker cools down completely and comes in room temperature, then only open the lid. 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.

For preparing Rabdi/Rabri, Take 1 litre of full cream milk in a pan and bring it to boil. Add 1 cup milk powder gradually and keep stirring so that no lumps are formed. It is completely optional to add milk powder. The purpose of adding milk powder is to thicken the milk instantly. You may use the traditional method of preparing rabdi by reducing the milk on low flame.

Add 1 cup fresh bread-crumbs. I would recommend you to use only white bread crumbs. The purpose of adding bread-crumbs to milk is to give instant thickness to the rabdi.

Add two tablespoons of sugar for sweetness. The quantity of sugar can be adjusted as per your taste and requirement.

Cook it for 5 minutes on low medium flame until you get the desired thickness. Add a few strands of saffron.

Now, its time to add soft and succulent chhena balls in the luscious rabri. Put all the balls in rabdi.

Garnish it with your favourite finely chopped nuts and your Angoori Rasmalai or chhena kheer is ready to serve. It tastes the best when served chilled.