Rasgulla / Cheese balls in Sugar Syrup

Rasgulla is a cheese based dessert in sugar syrup. It is very famous in West Bengal , a state in India. Rasgulla is made by cooking cottage cheese balls in sugar syrup. This recipe is from a very experienced and talented person who has years of experience in making Rasgulla. I blindly followed her recipe and to my surprise everyone at home loved it. In fact, my son asks me very often , 'amma when are making rasgulla'  :)

I have tried many other versions of Rasgulla including the pressure cooker method, but nothing tastes as good as this one. These are very soft, they are plum , and Yumm :) . Please do visit the original recipe source since there are so many tips for making perfect rasgullas on the original post.

Recipe Source : http://fromthekitchenstothetastebuds.blogspot.in/2014/01/rosogolla-cheeseballs-in-sugar-syrup.html

Ingredients

• 1 litres of full cream milk
• 2 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
• 1 Tablespoon Semolina / Suji
• 1/2 Tablespoon Icing Sugar
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 2 Cups of water
• 3 Green Cardamom split

Directions :

1. In a heavy bottomed pan, boil milk. When the milk raises above , add lemon juice. Milk will curdle and clear whey will separate from the milk. Immediately switch of the flame
2. Drain the curdled milk through a strainer and wash it three times under slowly running tap water to get rid of the lemon smell. Squeeze and drain the whey completely. Drained dry curdled milk is called chenna

                                   

3. Add this chenna to a large plate and add semolina and icing sugar. Knead well with the palm of your hand. You can feel the fat from the chenna on your hand. Your hand will turn greasy in 5 minutes of kneading, which is a good sign. Keep kneading for 15 minutes

                                     

4. Using a tablespoon, measure out 1 tablespoon kneaded chenna and make a smooth ball out of it. I used tablespoon measure just to ensure all the Rasgullas are in same size. You can just eye ball  the quantity and make balls too
5. Make balls and set aside

                                   

6. In an another pan, add sugar , water and cardamom and bring it to boil. Reduce the flame to medium. Now add previously made balls in the sugar syrup. The pan you selected should be wide enough to accommodate all the balls and give them enough space to move around

                                 

                                

7. Once you finish adding all the balls, reduce the flame to lowest setting. Cover the pan and let it cook
8. Let the balls cook in sugar syrup for 45 minutes. By this time, they will be doubled in size
9. Switch off the flame, remove the lid and let the Rasgulla remain in the sugar syrup. Let it cool completely
10. Serve rasgullas along with sugar syrup