Ras malai
My favorite dessert in India. Sweet and delicate in the same time.
To prepare it you must make:
- Rabri – the sauce you put chenna into
- Chenna – means paneer
- Sweet syrup – to soak paneer in it
| Ingredients | Amount |
|---|---|
| Full Fat Milk | 5 cups - 1 1/4 liter |
| Milk | 3 cups - 3/4 liter |
| Sugar | 1 1/2 cup |
| Cardamom | 3 to 4 pinches |
| Lemon Juice | 3 tsp |
| Pista Almonds | handful |
| Saffron | 2 pinches |
| Water | 3 cups + 5 tsp |
Notes:
- To make chenna you can use ordinary milk
- If you don’t have the cardamom powder you can crush the fresh cardamom seeds and use the small pieces
Preparation:
Rabri
| Ingredients | Amount |
|---|---|
| Milk | 3 cups - 3/4 liter |
| Sugar | 1/2 cup |
| Saffron | 2 pinches |
- Add 3 cups of milk to a pot. Bring it to a boil on a medium flame.
- Add saffron and keep stirring every few minutes.
- Add sugar.
- Adjust the flame as desired to suit your convenience.
- Keep stirring every few minutes, moving aside the cream that comes on top.
- Switch off when the milk gets condensed to a half the quantity.
Chenna
| Ingredients | Amount |
|---|---|
| Full Fat Milk | 1 1/2 liter - 6 cups |
| Lemon Juice | 3 tsp |
| Water | 5 tsp |
While the rabri is getting done:
- Add 6 cups of whole milk to the another pot. Bring it to a boil.
- Mix 3 tsp of lemon juice with 5 tsp of water.
- When the milk starts boiling, add the lemon juice mix
- Keep stirring until the milk curdles completely. If needed add more lemon juice. Switch off the stove.
- When the milk curdles completely, drain it up in a thin muslin cloth
- Wrap up the paneer in the cloth, bringing together all the edges.
- Tie up the paneer in the cloth. Hang it up on a hook for 30 minutes for the whey to completely drain.
- Here you can start to make syrup.
- After 30 minutes: At this step you must have chenna that is just moist with no dripping water and not sticky. Knead it for 3 minutes or use a mixer. You must not knead it to the extent that chenna begins to release grease and fats.
- Divide it to 12 equal portions. Make balls and flatten them gently. If you find the edges cracked up, gently smoothen them. Cover and set them aside.
Sweet Syroup
| Ingredients | Amount |
|---|---|
| Water | 3 cups |
| Sugar | 1 cup |
| Cardamom | 3 pinches |
- Bring 3 cups of water to a boil with 1 cup sugar.
- When the syrup begins to boil add cardamom powder
- When the syrup begins to boil rapidly, add discs of chenna. Cover immediately and cook on a moderately high flame for around 8 minutes. If you made smaller pieces of chenna cook for less amount of time.
- The discs should double the size. Take out one by one and cool. Gently squeeze them in between spatule and spoon.
- Add them to the rabri
Add:
- Chopped pistachios, almonds, cashews and 1 pinch of cardamom to the rabri
- You can also simmer for just 1 or 2 minutes on a low flame for the milk to be absorbed by the discs. Do not overcook at this stage as they may brake.
And it’s ready, serve chilled.
You can mix the syrup with the whey and use it as a drink.
Bon Apetit!
Here are few pictures:
Gandhi.
