Rasgullas

I am a member of a group which belongs to food lovers - Food lovers who love to cook and eat and also share their recipes.
Vidya Pachi is a part of this group and she had made rasgullas which looked yummy and the recipe was the most simplest one. Thank you Vidya Pachi for the simple rasgulla recipe.

My husband is a huge fan of rasgullas and hence I made an attempt to cook them. 

The only change I made was adding cardamom powder to the chenna (home made paneer), making the rasgulla syrup with saffron and adding a small mishri in the middle of the rasgulla before boiling to get a hollow center - this trick, I remember my oldest cousin doing it to get extra spongy rasgullas.

Ingredients

1/2 gallon whole milk
juice from 2 whole lemons
1 & 1/2 cup sugar
4 cups water
pinch of saffron
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
25 mishris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishri) - I had bought all of them of a uniform size from an Indian store nearby

Method

Bring the milk to a boil and then add the lemon juice to let it curdle. Mix well untill the water separates from the milk. Strain this mixture into a muslin/cheese cloth and tie it up well to drain all the whey (water) out. Put some heavy can on the pack containing the milk solids to let go of any more water. The milk solids that remain is called 'chenna' - this is used to make the rasgullas.
Take the chenna and mix it well with your fingers to form a soft dough. This process of kneading takes up atleast 10 minutes. Add cardamom powder and mix well. Make small round balls - smaller than a golf ball by adding a mishri in the middle. Let them sit.
In a pressure cooker add the water and sugar and the saffron. Mix well and put it on medium heat. When the sugar dissolves add the rasgullas and close the lid and let it cook under pressure for 2 whistles. Be careful to have enough space fro the rasgullas to float or else they will stick to each other.
Remove into a serving bowl and cool it in the refrigerator - Rasgullas are ready to be served.