Rasgulla (homemade Cheese in Sugar Syrup - a sweet from West Bengal)

This preparation does not take more than 1 hr in all.

Dont go by the look of this photo, this was my first try at this exotic Bengali sweet dish.

The good ones dont wait for the photo to be clicked.

Ingredients:
Milk 2% or 2.5% 1 litreLemon Juice 1 lemon and 2 Tablespoon water
Sugar 2 1/2 cup
Water 5 cups
Cardamom powder 1 teaspoon (optional)Rose water (optional)
Flour 1 teaspoon (optional)
Semolina 1/2 teasoon (optional)
Sugar 1 teaspoon
Preparation:
For Cheese:1. Bring the milk to boil, stirring occasionally without letting the layer of cream form on top and burning it in the bottom.
2. Add the lemon juice gradually and stir the milk gently. 3. As the cheese starts separating from the water, turn off the heat.
4. Drain the waiter using a strainer cloth. (You could keep this water for later use)
5. Rinse the cheese under running cold water and squeeze well.
6. Hang the cheese in the cloth for soemtime for the wetness to disappear.7. To check if enough water is out of the cheese, take a little piece of cheese on your palm and rub with your fingers. After rubbing for about 15-20 seconds, you should be able to make a firm but smooth ball.
Making the balls:1. Place the cheese on a plate and knead it for 3-4 minutes along with 1 teaspoon flour, 1/2 teaspoon emolina, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder, until the cheese almost rolls into smooth soft dough.
2. Divide the dough into 10-12 equal parts and roll them into smooth balls.
3. Make the balls by applying pressure on the fist and then release when forming the balls.Syrup:1. Boil the water with sugar in a pan.
2. Add the balls and close the lid of the pan on medium heat for 30 minutes.
3. Check in between if it done.
4. Add rose water when the heat subsides.
5. Serve the Rasgullas after 2-3 hrs.
You could also make Rasgullas in pressure cooker(though my results in cooker was not too satisfactory)
1. Add the cheese balls in sugar syrup and close the pressure cooker. When the pressure starts coming out, turn the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes.
2. Close the heat and wait till the pressure subsides. Then check if the Rasgullas are done.

Tips:1. While kneading the cheese make sure its not too dry. If the dough turns dry Rasgullas become hard.
2. Also, while kneading there should not be any broken lines and the dough should look smooth. The Rasgullas may break if there are broken lines.3. When you refrigerate the Rasgullas they might turn hard. Just microwave them / heat them and tada they are soft again.
4. If they are hard or get broken you can mix them in condensed or thickened milk or kheer and serve.
5. Note that the size of the Rasgullas almost doubles while cooking in syrup, so your pan or pressure cooker should have enough space to hold them.
6. After cooling while serving, the size will deminish a little.

Orange Kheer (Fresh Oranges dipped in condensed Milk - known as Kheer Komla in West Bengal)

Ingredients:
1 ltr full-cream milk or 4% fat milk
7-8 Tablespoon sugar
2-3 sweet Oranges nicely peeled or you could use marmalade
1/2 cup chopped Almonds
3-4 Cardamom powder
1 bay leaf

Preparation:

1. Boil the milk in a non-stick pan.
2. Continue boiling in low heat and stir it so that it doesnt stick in the bottom and also no layer forms(malai).
3. Now add sugar into the milk and stir well.
4. Continue boiling the milk till the color changes.
5. Add the Cardamom powder and bay leaf.
6. Remove the milk from the heat and add blanched Almonds.
7. Cool it for atleast 2 hrs.
8. Peel the Oranges nicely and add only the flesh to this condensed milk.
9. Mix it well without mashing the flesh of orange.
10. Refrigerate before serving.

Note:
The taste of this dish depends on the consistency you would prefer.Could be like custard or even had as a drink. When you add oranges you should be able to see a layer of it standing on the kheer. The image below is like a drink and the sweet dish like kheer tastes better. Cooking this dish in earthen ware gives a better flavor.