Rasbhari

Rabhari (also spelled rasgula, rassogolla) is popular milk (soft cheese) based indian dessert. Literally, rabhari are spherical fresh cheese balls in sugar syrup. Contrary to popular belief, rabhari are originally from Orissa not Bengal. However, Bengali chefs are credited for perfecting the recipe and spreading it throughout the Indian subcontinent. For example, in Nepal, it is commonly known as rasbari.

Rabhari also serves as a precursor to many other Indian desserts such as rasmalai, cham cham, kheer sagar etc. The given recipe is a basic guide to make Rabhari from scratch. Some also add semolina to firmly hold fresh cheese together in the spherical shape.

Ingredients

4 cups of whole milk
1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice
1 and ½ cup sugar*
½ teaspoon cardamom (Elaichi) powder
3 cup water for boiling*

*Proportion of sugar to water should be around 1:2.
 Preparation
1     Add a teaspoon of lemon juice to milk and bring it to boil. The lemon juice will separate the milk into watery whey and solid chunks.
2     Throw away the liquid part by shifting the mixture through a clean muslin cloth. (It will take around 15 minutes to have excessive water drip off.). Then squeeze out the extra water.
3     Mix solid milk chuck with cardamom. Knead it like dough.
4     Make a small balls (around ½ inch diameter) out of dough.
5     Boil water in a wide utensil with at least 2 to 3 inches of water over medium-low heat.
6     Add sugar to the boiling water to make a sweet syrup.
7     Gently drop the solid balls in the boiling syrup.
8     Cook the balls in the boiling syrup for about half hour minutes. Balls will expand about twice its size.
9     Remove from the heat. Cool it. Serve it in room temperature or colder.

Dessert

Nepal has a wide variety of desserts. Many popular Nepali deserts such as Rasbari (Rasgula in Hindi) are common throughout South Asia while many other are local favorite are typical to only an ethnic group in Nepal. 

 

Nepali desserts can be divided into two categories. First category is milk based such as Rasbari, Peda, Burfi, Ladoo etc. 

The second category of Nepali dessert are based on flour such as Sel Roti, Lal Mohan, Lakhamari, Malpuwa, Halwa etc.

"Peda"

 

Ingredients Needed To Prepare Peda
1.Fresh White Khoya/Mawa – ½ kg 2. Powdered Sugar – 2½ cups 3. Cardamom powder – ½ tsp 4. Cardamom seeds semi crushed – 1 tsp 5. Crushed pistachios – 1 tbsp

 How To Prepare Peda
Grate khoya with a steel (not iron) grater. Add powdered sugar and mix well. Put mixture in a large heavy or nonstick pan. Heat the mixture initially on a high flame for few minutes and then simmer it until it is done. Stir constantly. When mixture thick and gooey, add cardamom and mix well. Then remove it from the cooking range. Allow it to cool, gently churning the mixture occasionally.
Make oblong shaped pedas with palms or you can be innovative and use cookie moulds. Sprinkle pistachios and cardamom seeds on top and the pedas are ready to serve.

"Boondi Laddoo"

 

Ingredients Needed To Prepare Laddoo
1. Gram Flour (Besan) – 300 grams (This should be slightly coarse) 2. Milk – ½ Litre 3. Sugar – 300 grams 4. Cardamom Powder- A pinch 5. Water – 500 ml 6. Saffron – A pinch 7. Food Color – Orange (This is optional) 8. Oil For Deep Frying.

 An important tool needed to prepare Boondi is a strainer. The fineness of the holes in the strainer gives the desired shape of the boondi. There is no specific size that it is needed. It is totally dependant how you would like it. Its size and shape doesn’t affect the taste of the Laddoo.

How To Prepare Boondi Laddoo
Add sugar to the water and start boiling it for the next 3-4 minutes.The scum of the sugar will be floating on the top. Remove the layer of scum. Continue boiling till it thickens. Add the cardamom powder to it and keep it aside. Mix the gram flour with milk and make it into a smooth paste without any lumps.

Heat sufficient amount of oil in a deep frying pan and heat the oil.Pass the gram flour batter through the strainer. Tap the strainer so that the flow is even and smooth. The oil should be very hot so that the frying is done rapidly. When the color turns golden brown take it out. Complete doing this till all the batter is over. Next dip the boondis in the sugar syrup that was previously prepared. After soaking them for few minutes, spread them on a plate evenly. Sprinkle hot water over this mixture and cover it with a cloth and leave it for 10 minutes.

Moisten your palms with water and roll this mixture into small balls. The size can be rolled as per your choice but make sure that all the balls are of equal shape and size.

There is another sweet that is commonly offered to Lord Ganesh is Peda. This again has plenty of varieties like Kesar Peda, Mawa/Khoya Peda, Apple Peda, Malai Peda (Malai- Cream) and many more. The basic way of preparing it is with Mawa/Khoya. To this, various flavorings are added to create varieties.