Ras Malai

The heavenly dessert! One simple tag line is enough to speak about the dish. Rasmalais were unknown until few years back when M introduced it to me. At first, it appeared to be a regular milk sweet but when M told that those are rasgullas dunked into creamy, rich, smooth, luscious Rabdi, I was sold.

Before he could finish, i scooped in my first try and it left me spell bound (Yes! I had them in my mouth!) They were quite rich and yummy! Unbelievably soft and had that crunchy texture from nuts! Ahhh rest is just past let’s say! Coming to the other reason why I made this heavenly sweet is that now you are reading my 200^th post on my blog’s second birthday (or should I say 2^nd Blog Anniversary??!!??) Yay! I did it and to boast my success what better can i think of other than these sweet little beauties??

Ingredients:

Rasgullas-10-15(recipe here)

For the Rabdi/Sweet Sauce:

Condensed Milk- 200 ml /small tin

Sugar-1/2 cup

Milk-2 cups

Nuts- ¼ cup chopped ( I used Almonds and Pistachios)

Saffron-~20 strands

How It Happened:

1. Take around ¼ cup of warm milk and add the saffron strands into it and mix well. Close and set aside.

2. In a heavy bottomed pan, add the remaining milk and heat until it starts boiling.

3. Then add the condensed milk and sugar and simmer and keep stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture slightly thickens.

4. Add the saffron milk to the mixture and mix it well.

5. Add the chopped nuts into this mixture and let it simmer for 2 minutes.

6. In the meantime take the rasgullas and slightly squeeze out the excess sugar syrup in it so they can absorb the rabdi well.

7. Drop it in the rabdi stir once so that the rabdi coats all the rasgullas well. Simmer for 2 minutes.

8. Switch off the flame, let it cool and refrigerate it for 2-4 hours and serve chilled.

Notes:

* I made few disc shaped and few round rasgullas. If the rasgullas are homemade you can shape it as per your taste and you can even stuff them with few nuts too.

* Crush the saffron slightly before adding to the warm milk facilitating the release of flavours and colours.

* Place the rasgullas in between two ladles and gently squeeze the syrup out. Do not apply heavy pressure as this might end up in the crumbling of rasgullas.

* Rasmalai tastes better when served cold.

* I didn’t add any flavourings as  my rasgullas were already rose flavoured and also the sugar syrup of rasgullas was cardamom scented hence I didn’t want to mess with the flavours  and also i want the saffron and milk to take over the rabdi. Play with your choices but make sure you add few drops only else they may spoil the dish totally.

* A few dried rose petals can be added to the rabdi and can be added to the garnish before serving.