Sunday’s feature: From Ranu’s kitchen, famous Bangladeshi dessert, Ras gulla blogging 101

Today I’m posting our famous dessert recipe and a photograph taken by me. I’m not a seasoned photographer, therefore there will be flaws for which I apologize. I have not practiced enough to make it perfect, sorry.

Recipe for Rasgulla(cheese balls in syrup):

Ingredients:

1. Whole milk- 2 litres
2. fresh lemon- 3 squeeze to get the juice , set it aside
3. plain white flour- 2 tablespoons
4. soft butter-2 tablespoon
5. Method:
6. pour the milk in a round pot with a lid(the lid will be useful later)do not cover, slowly bring the milk to a boil, when it comes to full boil, pour the juice of the three lemons, wait for a few minutes until the milk curdles and cheese is formed. Use cheesecloth to drain the water. When the water is drained completely, squeeze the cloth to make sure all of the water is drained and the cheese is lukewarm. Take the cheese  out of the cheese cloth and put it into a bowl large enough to be able to knead. Add butter and the tablespoons of flour. Mix it in the cheese and knead it. when the cheese is smooth and doesn’t crack, when you try to make into little balls, it is ready. It makes about eighteen balls.
7. Syrup ingredients:
8. Water- 6 measuring cups
9. sugar- three measuring cups
10. Use the same pot to make syrup, wash the pot thoroughly , pour the water and sugar and place it on the stove top, turn on the heat to medium, when the sugar dissolves turn up the heat to full boil, when the syrup is slightly sticky,put about nine cheese balls to avoid them from rubbing each other, otherwise the balls would break. Cover the boiling cheese balls in syrup at  high heat for five minutes. Turn the heat slightly, continue boiling for ten minutes this time, after fifteen minutes, turn down the heat to medium and leave the cheese balls for twenty minutes more in the syrup. The last  ten minutes turn the heat to simmer. While cooking you must make sure the syrup is not too thick, if it is have some plain boiled water and add it gently. Do not put too much.
11. After forty five minutes take the cheese balls out gently. At this stage they are very soft, it’s a good idea to wait about five minutes, and then take them out one at a time and place them in a serving bowl, save the  the syrup for the next batch.
12. Repeat the same method for the remaining cheese balls, when all eighteen are cooked put them in the same serving bowl and pour the remaining syrup over the cheese balls.
13. Enjoy!
14. …………………………….. 🙂

DP Daily Prompts: First!

Tell us about your first day at something— your first day at school, first day of work, first day living on your own, first day blogging, first day as a parent, whatever.

My first day trying to make our Bangladeshi dessert,Rasgulla( Ras –means syrup,gulla—means round).

when I read my description of the dessert, it sounded pretty stupid, one might think what kind of dessert is round syrup. Whoever named it did not think  perhaps some day it will appear in a country where there are not many who can speak the language, and would wonder what kind of dessert is round syrup?

Let me try to defend the name, these round desserts were made with milk, which is boiled and when it comes to a boil a few ounces of fresh lemon juice is poured to make cheese, which is shaped into a ball and cooked in syrup made of sugar and water. I don’t think anyone ever thought of translating this famous dessert of Bangladesh into English or if they did never paid attention how it sounds in English, it was made in Bengal and obviously for the inhabitants there.

But now it’s found in many countries where people speak different languages.

I can write pages about this but my intention is to write  about our experience making  this famous dessert the first time.

My husband bought a recipe book where he saw the recipe for cheese balls in syrup. We were excited wow we can make this at home whenever we crave for it. The author of the recipe either did not try it or heard from someone and decided to put it in his book, thinking how hard can it be it will work out.

My husband bought whole milk, sugar and three lemons, and we started making our Bengali dessert,we were  excited we’d be able to serve our friends with this awesome dessert.

It’s much like the milkmaid story.

I poured the  milk in  a sauce pan and placed the pan on the burner , I switched the temperature on high, we were anxious to get it done fast, this was Strike One  , the milk was cold and the high temperature burned the milk at the bottom, I changed the sauce pan and kept stirring the milk so it wouldn’t burn. When it came to a boil I put the juice of the lemon in the milk, within minutes the water and the cheese separated. I put a cheese cloth in a colander and drained the water.When the cheese was cool enough I put a tablespoon of flour and a tablespoon of butter and started kneading it, when it was soft and pliable I took the cheese and divided into twenty six small cheese balls.

Next step was to cook syrup with water and sugar, when the syrup started boiling I put enough cheese balls that would fit. Now there was a problem how long should I boil it and what temperature, the instruction was missing, Strike Two, in the end it said after five minutes take the pot off the stove.

I said,  “hurray”, we’ve  successfully made our Famous Bengali dessert. My husband was anxious to taste it, when it was cool enough my husband said, “Ranu, why is it so hard and it’s not sweet at all, what did you do wrong?”

“I don’t know I said I followed the recipe.”

Our dessert got “Strike Three“. we wasted so much sugar and milk and  time and burned a sauce pan, the result was we were unsuccessful.

After this incident we kept trying, until one day my American friend made the same dessert, it tasted just like the ones we buy in sweet shops. She gave me the recipe,I tried it and it was perfect each time!

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/dp-daily-prompts-first/