Festive Food: Orange Rasgullas

Festive season comes with a glut of mithais and most of the mithais in the market are full of chemical essences and colours. Why not make something with natural flavours and colours?

Rasgullas made in orange juice and served with fresh orange slices makes a great festive dessert and everyone likes it. Let's see how to make it easily at home.

Ingredients

(for 30 medium sized rasgullas)

2 Liters milk (the best is to use raw cows milk for the best rasgullas)

2-3 tbsp white vinegar

2 Liters orange juice ( I used cartons of Real)

3-4 fresh oranges to garnish

Procedure

First of all heat up raw (or pasteurized) milk to just below boiling temperature (around 92C) and curdle the milk by adding diluted white vinegar or lime juice adding half tsp at a time.

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Wait till the milk splits into the curdled chhenna and whey and then strain the whey through a strainer. Collect the chhenna and rinse it well under running water. Squeeze and knead the chhenna well to make a very smooth mass that doesn't crack when rolled into small balls.

If the chhenna at this stage is not smooth, do not proceed to make rasgulla, use the chhenna to make paneer bhurji or paneer paratha instead.You can add some maida to make the chhena dough smoother too. The trick to make suitable smooth chhenna for rasgulla lies in splitting the milk slowly at a temperature just before boiling.

Now take enough water in a wide pan or pressure cooker to accommodate 6-8 rasgullas and bring the water to boil. Take care that the rasgullas expand about 4-5 times of their starting volume so keep room for that too. Add the orange zest and the chhenna balls, cover the lid and cook till the pressure builds up, one whistle.

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Note that there was no sugar in the cooking medium and the sponge for these rasgullas were cooked in plain water infused with orange zest.

This causes a few cracks on the surface of the rasgulla but it doesn't affect the taste and texture.A fairly saturated sugar syrup doesn't let these cracks appear while cooking but we don't mind a few cracks on rasgullas.Slice some fresh oranges and dip them along with the orange rasgullas and chill before serving.

If you want more concentrated flavours of orange you can reduce the orange juice by cooking it for some time but I don't feel any such compulsion to make the orange juice sweeter or thicker.