It is time again for the “Secret recipe club” reveal! I am sure you all know what the club is about, but for the few of you who still don’t know about it, here goes a brief explanation. It is a great concept… each month you are assigned a participating food blogger to make a recipe from and in turn someone else will be assigned your blog. All you have to do is choose a recipe, make it and blog about it on the specified date. The only rule is to keep it a secret! If you are interested in learning more, or want to join the club, please visit the Secret recipe club website.
So, the SRC is back after taking a break over the Christmas holidays! This month’s assignment was very exciting for me as I was paired with Nayna of Simply.Food! Nayna lives in the UK and is of Indian origins! You know how much I love Indian food, so I had a blast browsing through all her delicious recipes. I pinned so many of them, my head started spinning! I had to resort to my husband and he picked one for me! Having a HUGE sweet tooth, he chose a dessert: Ras Malai. This very popular Indian dessert is made up of sweet paneer balls, cooked in sugar syrup until fluffy and served in a creamy milk sauce flavoured with cardamom and saffron. The final dish is then garnished with nuts! Need I say more? I don’t think so… My kids devoured it and my husband declared it a big success, and considering his expertise in the sweet department, I am quite satisfied with how this recipe turned out! I’d like to dedicate this post to my mother in law as she really likes Ras Malai! <3
Thank you so much for such a scrumptious recipe Nayna! Please, make sure you drop by Simply.Food and check out Nayna’s beautiful site!
Ras Malai
The recipe for a delicious Indian dessert: Ras Malai - paneer balls cooked in sugar syrup and served in a creamy milk sauce.
Ingredients
Milk Syrup
- 750 ml – 3 cups milk
- 60 gms – 4 tbsp sugar
- 1 large pinch saffron
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
Paneer
- 1 lt – 4 cups milk
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp all purpose flour maida
Sugar Syrup
- 625 ml – 2.5 cups water
- 60 gms – 4 tbsp sugar
Garnish
- 1 tbsp pistachios chopped
- 1 tbsp almond slivers
- Few strands of saffron
Instructions
Milk Syrup
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In a heavy bottomed pan, add the milk and bring to a boil.
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Add the saffron and let the milk simmer on low heat, stirring so it doesn't burn, until the milk reduces of half (this will take approximately 40 minutes).
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Then add the sugar and stir to dissolve it. Add the cardamom powder and stir well. Remove from the heat and keep it aside.
Paneer
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In a heavy bottomed pan, add the milk and bring to a boil.
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Add the lemon juice and stir. The milk will curdle and separate.
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Leave it untouched for 5 minutes, then place a muslin cloth in a colander and gently pour the separated milk in it.
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Run cold water over the separated milk to remove any traces of lemon juice.
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Squeeze out the excess water from the paneer, wrap it in the muslin cloth and place a heavy object over it to help drain all the water out.
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Leave it like that for 30 minutes.
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After 30 minutes transfer the paneer to a bowl, add the flour and knead well to form a soft dough.
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Roll out 12 walnut sized balls from the paneer making sure there are no cracks. Flatten them slightly (like patties) and keep them under a damp tea towel.
Sugar Syrup
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Allow the syrup to boil, then add the paneer balls into it.
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Cover the pan and let the paneer balls cook for 15-20 minutes on low heat.
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When ready, the paneer balls will be spongy and will have doubled in size.
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Let them cool down a bit and when you can handle them, remove them from the sugar syrup. Slightly press each ball between your palms to remove the excess sugar syrup.
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Place the squeezed balls in the milk syrup made in step one. Let them cook on low heat for a couple of minutes so they soak up the milk syrup.
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Transfer the Ras Malai to a serving dish, let it cool down and refrigerate it.
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Just before serving, garnish with chopped pistachios, almond slivers and a few strands of saffron.
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Serve cold.
I also love Indian food. But am only one in the house now who does. This looks really tasty!! And love the flavors!
What a gorgeous dessert, Manu….and I love how the SRC exposes me to dishes I’ve never seen before 🙂
Nayna has some LOVELY recipes! These look absolutely wonderful what a great SRC pick! Karen visiting from Group C too!
I love learning about the food from various cultures! This looks like one tasty dish!
I have never heard of this dessert but it looks and sounds divine! I rarely cook Indian food but I do enjoy it so this is a good start. Love seeing your posts 🙂
Thankyou for cooking from simply.food.I am so glad you enjoyed cooking the ras malai ,it is a fairly challenging dish and you have executed it brilliantly.It looks really delicious.
Never heard of ras malai before, but it sounds amazing! Definitely going to have to give it a try, I made a resolution this year to try more new cuisines and dishes.
Beautiful recipe! I had never heard of it, I love Indian food but rarely order desserts, so now I have something to dream about… This seems like the type of dessert I would love, creamy, and perfumed with saffron, one of my favorite spices!
My neighbour from Pakistan shared with me her home made ras malai and I loved it. I never guessed that that balls where made with paneer.
I take note of the recipe 🙂
That sounds heavenly! What a great mix of flavors and textures!
Oh my, but this is something completely new to me. It sounds utterly intriguing. I am so glad you made this!