Mishti Mukh - Ras Malai

Ras Malai is basically small cottage cheese dumplings in flavored milk. It is available at any sweet shop but it becomes more special if you make it at home. My Boudi (bhabi/co-sister) taught me to prepare this and I tried it out. It really came out well. I am sure you will like it too. It is the simplest recipe ever.

Here it goes…

What you need: 

• Milk – 1 ltr
• Tinned Rasgullas – 1 tin (you can avail MTR, Haldiram’s or any such tinned varieties. They come in a pack of 20 rasgullas)
• Kesar strands – 2 to 4
• Dry fruits such as almonds, pistachios, cashews, raisins – a handful.

Preparation

Take half cup of milk and soak the kesar strands for 30 mins. You can use kesar color or food color. Take the almonds, pistachios, cashews and coarsely chop them. Keep aside.

In a big pan or kadai heat milk. Bring into boil. Then lower the flame and wait for the milk to get thickened. Make sure the milk has reduced to half its quantity. Keep stirring so that the milk does not catch the bottom of the pan. You will notice that the malai has started to form in the milk.

Ras malai is usually not that sweet to taste therefore you can avoid putting any sugar in it. But if you like it real sweet, you can pour in 3-4 tbsp of sugar syrup into the boiling milk.

Add the kesar soaked milk and stir gently. If you want to add food color or kesar powder then also do not add it to the milk directly. Soak in a small amount of milk and then pour it into the milk once it has reduced.

Take each rasgulla from the tin and squeeze out the excess sugar syrup so that only the fluffy rasgulla is left. One by one pour them into the milk. You will see that the rasgulla will immediately start to soak the milk in. Bring into one boil and switch off the gas immediately. Remove from heat. Don’t keep the milk too much in the gas after you put in the rasgullas otherwise they will break and dissolve in the milk.

Sprinkle the dry fruits liberally so that all the rasgullas get coated equally. 

Once cool put it inside the fridge. Serve cold. 

Your ras malai is ready to eat.