Rasgulla (ras means syrup and gulla refers to round cheese balls) are made with whole milk. Start by curdling the milk to make the cheese that is later kneaded to form soft dough. Tiny balls are made out of that dough, which is then cooked in sugar syrup.
Ingredients:
7 cups whole milk
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 cups water
3 cups sugar
pinch of saffron
Method:
In a deep pan, bring the milk to boil stirring occasionally, to avoid milk from getting burnt at the bottom. In the mean time, place cheesecloth over a colander and keep it over another big bowl to hold the whey. Once milk starts to boil, pour lemon juice, stir and switch off the heat. Within 4 to 5 seconds, the milk would curdle. Very carefully, pour it through the cheesecloth.
Next, carefully gather the ends of the cheesecloth and tie it around tightly. It will be hot, so be very careful and don’t burn your hands. Hang it somewhere to drain the remaining water from the cheese.
While you wait, make the sugar syrup. In a deep pan, pour water and sugar and bring it to boil and let it continue for 5 minutes. Once done, switch off the heat until you are ready to cook the rasgullas.
After about an hour of hanging the cheesecloth, un-tie it and collect the cheese in a bowl. Next, knead the cheese until it’s smooth and creamy. I trust my hand for this task even though it requires a little bit of effort. It would take about 5 to 10 minutes. Once done, make tiny balls out of the dough. Keep in mind that once the cheese balls are cooked in sugar syrup, they would almost double in size.
If you making a huge batch and the sugar syrup pan is not big enough to hold all of them in one go, don’t overcrowd it.
Drop a pinch of saffron treads in sugar syrup pan and heat it once again. Let it stay at medium heat. Drop the cheese balls with extreme precaution and care, one by one. Let it cook for 1 minute and then, increase the heat to high, cover the pan and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Depending on the size of the rasgullas and how many are you preparing in one batch, the cooking time would change.
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