Festivals are incomplete without a dessert. Orange Ras malai, a Bengali dessert, is rich in flavor, sweetness, and color. This Govardhan puja, offer your gratitude to Lord Krishna with this delightful orange ras malai.
Make your Govardhan puja special with this slurpy Orange Ras Malai, a popular Indian dessert made from chenna (cottage cheese). Small dumplings, made with chenna cooked in sugar syrup, and then soaked in orange-flavored condensed milk.
The process to make:
Preparation time: 20 min
Cooking time: 70 min
Total time: 90 min
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
Three-liter milk
Two tablespoons Vinegar
One cup fresh orange juice
One teaspoon Orange Zest
Three tablespoon orange pulp
Two tablespoons Arrowroot starch
One pinch of Baking soda
Six cup Sugar
Five cups Water
Three drops Orange Essence
1/4 teaspoon orange food color (optional)
Dry Fruits for garnishing
Method:
- Prepare cottage cheese by heating 2 liters of milk in a pan. Add orange juice, orange zest, and vinegar when milk comes to a boil. Milk will start curdling instantly. Now turn off the heat and let the milk sit for 5 minutes.
- Drain the curdled milk and what we have here is cottage cheese (chenna).
- Now heat the remaining 1 liter of milk on a medium flame. Keep stirring the milk until it’s reduced to half, don’t let the milk stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Add ½ cup of sugar to the milk, pinch of orange color, and orange essence. Pour the milk into a bowl. Keep this aside
- Now, it’s time to shape the chenna. Place it in a bowl, add cornflour and a pinch of orange color, which is optional. Mash the chenna with your hands or use an appropriate utensil at your disposal. Knead and mash it till it is soft.
- Shape the chenna into 13-14 small balls and flatten it a bit.
- Ras malai is spongy, so we have to cook the chenna balls. Heat 5 and a half cup sugar in a cooker. Dissolve the sugar and wait till water comes to a boil. Add the chenna balls and Cook till two whistles.
- Open the cooker, and what we want here is a puffed-up chenna ball. Add the chenna balls to the reduced milk you have prepared earlier.
- The orange ras malai is ready to be refrigerated for at least 5 hours. Garnish it with dry fruits and serve it this Govardhan puja
Tips:
- Add Kesar and rose water to make it even richer in taste and aroma.
- The quality of water matters, irrespective of cuisine
- Use a deep pan to boil the milk; this will avoid overflowing of milk when it comes to a boil.
- Don’t try to cook all the chenna balls in the cooker at once if it is hard to accommodate. Use a bigger cooker or cook in installments.
Conclusion:
It does seem a lot of work when your little one asks for a bowl of ras malai. It does require a bit of time to make, but this easy finger-licking homemade recipe is worth every bit.
