Rasmalai and Rasgulla!!! Diwali Special

Hearty Diwali Greetings to all Neivedyam viewers!!

Thanks to Raks for the lovely recipe. It came out so well! My whole family enjoyed it. I followed her recipe step by step.

Ingredients

whole milk 1 Lit(for paneer)
1/2 lit milk (for syrup)
Lemon juice 3 tblsp
Sugar 2 cups
Water 3 cups
Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
10 Saffron strands
Nuts for garnish

Preparation

Rasgullas
Heat 1 lit milk,when it starts boiling, add lemon juice and stir well.
Heat on low flame until the whey water clearly separates. Turn off the heat.
Take a metal strained, lined with a cheese cloth. Pour the curdled milk in it and wash it well with running water under the tap to remove the lemon smell and sourness.
Squeeze the excess water gently from the cloth and hang it for 30 minutes. After 1/2 hour,take out the crumbled paneer in a bowl. Knead the paneer for 7-10 minutes gently to make it a soft and smooth dough. Make smooth equal sized balls. Round ones for rasgullas and a little flat ones for rasmalai.
In a pressure cooker, add water and sugar to make syrup and boil it. Also add cardamom powder. To the syrup add the paneer balls carefully one after the other. Pressure cook on low flame till one whistle. Let it stay for 5 more minutes. Turn off the heat. Once the cooker cools off, you can see the paneer balls in the syrup have doubled the size.
The Rasgullas are ready and can be served chilled. But in my house it was over as soon as I opened the cooker:)
Since I was making it for the first time the shapes were a little flat like rasmalai so I made some.

For Rasmalai-
Heat 1/2 litre milk, add 1 cup sugar, saffron and cardamom powder. Bring to boil and let it thicken a little. Turn off the heat. when the milk cools a little, remove the rasgullas from the syrup and dunk them in milk garnish with nuts and serve chilled!!

Sesame-Coconut Laddu (kobbari- nuvvulu laddu) - Diwali Special

Actually I was planning to make burfis and landed up innovating this delicious laddus!! I never thought it would turn out so yum:) Ingredients 1 cup freshly grated coconut 1 cup white sesame seeds 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1 tsp crushed cardamom powder 2 tsp Dry fruits 1 tsp ghee Preparation In a pan heat ghee and roast the dry fruits (cashew nuts, almonds, raisins)till golden and set aside. In the same pan add sugar and water to make sugar syrup of one strand consistency. Simultaneously heat another pan and roast sesame seeds on low heat till slightly brown. When the sesame seeds cool down grind it into powder. To the sugar syrup add grated coconut and cardamom powder. When they both blend well turn off the heat. Add the sesame seed powder and dry fruits to the mixture and fold well. Make laddus, garnish with rosted sesame seeds and serve:). Tips- If you feel the mixture is too dry and is not sticking together add 2 tbsp ghee to it. This goes to CFK- Festive food hosted by Suma.

Paneer Jalebi- Diwali Special and the guessing game!

I saw this recipe on a TV show and ever since wanted to try it.

Ingredients

1 cup finely grated paneer
2 tsp milk
4 tbsp Maida flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp rose water
dash of baking powder
dash of saffron strands
1 tsp cardamom powder

Preparation

Heat a pan, add sugar and water to make syrup of single strand consistency. To this syrup add cardamom powder, saffron strands for natural colour of Jalebis, and rose water.
Keep stirring and cooking. Check to see if the desirable consistency is achieved. Cover with lid so that the sugar syrup does not crystalizes. It should stay warm too.
Use fresh and soft paneer for making these jalebis. I made paneer at home for my convenience. Mix finely grated paneer with maida. Slightly grind the mixture to fine paste/powder in a mixer. Remove the mixture to a bowl. Add baking powder to this dry mixture and mix well. Add milk and make a soft dough. With your hands roll a small amount of dough into thin strands on a clean surface as shown in the picture. It should be thinner than the strand shown in the picture else it takes long time to cook and becomes hard too. Twist them into shapes as shown and deep fry in oil till golden. Remove from oil and drop them in the sugar syrup. After Jalebi soakes for 10 minutes in the syrup, Drain the excess syrup and serve them after they cool down.



Since I was making these for the first time I was not very confident. My Son's tasted them and said they did not taste like the shop jalebis but was good:) Phew!!! I was really happy to hear that!!!
This goes to CFK- Festive food hosted by Suma.






Veggie Kebabs with french fries is the right guess:) Thanks friends for the interesting answers. I was happy to read Chicken too:)