Bengali Rasgulla or Roshogolla

Bengali Rasgulla or Rosogolla

Every year around late October, early November; when the leaves turn on their color spray to dress up in gorgeous red and blinding yellows, the wind picks up tugging at the branches and blowing away the pretty colored leaves to the land of warm sun, the tip of the nose turns cold and nice to touch and all you want from life is a few extra minutes under the warm quilt in the morning, I have this sense of foreboding thinking of approaching winter. "Babba, sheet eshe gelo, abar sei March obdi thanda," I complain, with a melancholy look at the calendar.

You know by now, that I am not one of the cheerful optimists out there. I don't see the glass half full.

It is for people like me however, that pre-historic or maybe historic men and women, had decided to plug in the months of October, November and December with all kinds of festivities that involve heavy eating, superfluous drinking, colorful lights and butter-ghee-sugar. Those are the best antidotes for any kind of depression or sense of foreboding one might have in life. Of course they did not tout the festival as orgies or as "days of abundant revelry". That might not have sold it to the intelligentsia. So they said, it is all because Lord Rama came back a winner from fourteen years of exile and the people of Ayodhya made mysore pak and lit a hundred lamps to celebrate Diwali, that sisters should dot their brother's forehead and ply them with food on Bhai Phonta because  in some mythical tale Yamuna had done the same for Yam, that the Pilgrims wanted to thank someone on Thanksgiving by eating Turkey and a bearded old man from North Pole wants to give gifts to all children in the dead of winter.

That is enough reason to convince me. I forget the impending doom a la winter for the moment. So we string on twinkling fairy lights that shine as the night gets dark and neighborhood quiet, the girls dress up as a fairy and a witch and collect enough candy to last a lifetime on Halloween, we dust old diyas that the girls had once painted and light up fourteen lights on Bhoot Chaturdashi. And then I also try my hand at making Roshogolla. It is Diwali after all. There has to be some sweet.

Now, Roshogolla or how it is famously known as Bengali rasgulla was not a dessert after my heart. Maybe because , it was the one sweet which my parents thought was safe and healthy enough to be consumed by the gallons. While I craved a gulab jamun or jalebi, it was the roshogolla which appeared much more frequently in our home, bobbing in sweet syrup, waiting to be picked from an earthenware pot. Since it was not fried in oil and was made of nothing but pure chhana, it was assumed that fresh warm roshogolla from the mishtir dokan was the best thing for a child to have almost everyday.If you were down with a fever, or were recuperating from a bad stomach, warm roshogolla straight off the bhiyen was what was served to bring back the taste.

One would think, being around the rasgulla day in and day out, I would grow some interest towards it. But I actually completely ignored it. Many years later when I started working and moved to B'lore, I realized the power of this sweet. Fellow Indians, who had very little idea of Bengal or a Bangali, were quick to familiarize themselves by saying "I simply love rasgulla". They probably thought the same when I said, "I loved Masala Dosa way more that any Rasgulla".

Soon we were carrying tins of K.C.dass's rasgulla as a return gift from Calcutta and even the first time we came to US, we carried a couple of those Rasgulla tins. I secretly laughed at people who thought this as a dessert to hanker after. Really, Roshogolla ?

I also assumed that it was a very difficult thing to make, given that my Mother who always made sweets like narkel naru, paayesh, malpoa or even sondesh at home, bought roshogolla from mishti'r dokan. The first time that a friend in the US, made it for her daughter's birthday, I was bowled over. She was a wonderful cook and so I naturally thought that making rasgulla at home was something that only someone as good a cook as J could do.

And then a couple of years ago, another friend K whom we have known since ages, non-chalantly made us a batch of roshogolla when we were visiting. Not only that, he also mentioned in a very matter of fact way, that  he makes roshogolla almost every week. Now, K was not someone who was hugely interested in cooking until like 3 years back. All of a sudden, he has discovered this culinary mojo and has been on a roll ever since. He is more in the league of people like me. His making roshogolla, gave me enough confidence that this was a sweet that could be easily done at home. However, since he always made us a big batch when we visited, I did not feel the urge to do the same again in my kitchen.

This is the point where the blog comes in. Several people wrote to me asking for a Roshogolla recipe. I always asked them to follow Manjula's Video. After all that is how K had learned too. And then came Diwali. There was pressure to post a Mishti recipe even if I did not want to eat it. I tried to coax the husband-man to make roshogolla citing the shining example of K who makes like billions of them for his wife. Husband-man refused point blank. And he did not even have enough reasons. He said he would rather make Mysore pak or even Biriyani. Dude, really ? Mysore Pak and Biriyani, when I am asking you to make Roshogolla ? What is the logic ? But husband-man rarely lives life by logic. So there was war and smoke and finally a resolution was reached, he would make only the chhana, rest was my responsibility. Calls were made to K and instructions duly noted.

Ultimately the husband-man got around doing more, including the syrup but honestly after the part called "Make Chhana", there is hardly anything to do. So, get going and make your own roshogolla at home. If like me, you have been putting it off for all these years, take the plunge, it is really really easy. The best part of making them at home was to see the happiness in dessert loving LittleSis's face who devoured them morning and night.

Sometimes, all one needs in life is a little light, to show the way. This Diwali may you find your light and also light up the way for others.
Happy Diwali and may your life be as sweet and pure as the Rasgulla

Bengali Rasgulla or Roshogolla

There is enough dispute about this sweet cheese balls being discovered in Orissa or West Bengal and as to who discovered the original form and who modified it. This sweet has its origin in Orissa but the soft, spongy version I have made is the the kind that Nobin Chondro Das of Bengal popularized and is now famously known as Bengali rasgulla.
.

 

Step 1-- Curdle Milk

Mix 4 Tbsp of Lime juice or 4 Tbsp Vinegar in 1/4th cup of hot water

Bring 1/2 gallon(8 cups or 1.89 lt) of Whole/Full Fat Milk to a rolling boil. Don't go on a diet and use anything less that Full fat Whole Milk.
When the milk is boiling add the diluted lemon juice/vinegar. Lower the heat. Almost in seconds you will see the milk curdle and clumps of white milk solids forming.When you see the greenish water separating take it off from heat. Add some ice to stop the cooking. Let it sit for 30 secs or so.

Note: If the lime is not sour enough, you might see that the milk is not curdling. In that case add 1 more tbsp of Vinegar to aid the curdling. 

Step 2 -- Drain chhana

Now line a colander with cheesecloth and drain the chhana/chenna/paneer. The greenish hued whey is great for making roti dough says my Ma. Next lightly rinse the chhana with water to remove the lemony taste and let it drain.

After few minutes gather the ends of the cheesecloth to form a purse like shape and squeeze out the remaining water from the chhana. Next put it on a flat plate and weigh it with a slightly heavier object and let it remain like that for the next hour.I used my mortar for weighing down, I remember my mother using her nora.You can also weigh it down with a pot filled with water.

It is very important that the chhana is drained of all excess water. After an hour, try squeezing the chhana again. If there is still some water, weigh it down with a heavy object for some more time. If you can take a little of the chana and roll it into a ball and it is not crumbling, then the water has been drained.

Almost 1 hour 30 minutes needed to drain.

Step 3 -- Knead Chhana

Now we have to knead the chhana. This is a important step for the roshogolla to be right. Knead the chhana with the heel of your palm for about 8-10 minutes.
Note: I sometimes add 1 tsp of Sooji/Rawa to the chhana and then knead. Too much sooji/rawa will make the roshogolla harder so don't add much. But 1-2 tsp sooji/rawa helps me get firmer roshogollas.

At the end of this the chhana will look like a smooth dough and your palm will be greasy from the fat of the chhana. Take small portion of it and roll into small balls between your palm. The balls should be smooth and firm. To make the balls thus, first apply a little pressure between your palm and then let go, rolling the ball very lightly by a circular motion of your palms.

Approximately 22-24 balls will be made from this measure

Step 4 -- Make syrup

We did the rasgulla in a pressure cooker as K said. He also does it in an open pot but then he has more experience so we went with the pressure cooker.
Mix 3 cups of Water + 2 Cup sugar (3:2 ratio) in a pressure cooker to make the syrup. Add a few small cardamom and few strands of saffron to the syrup. The saffron will make the rasgullas a pale yellow, so if you want pristine white rasgullas DO NOT add saffron.

Keep it at medium high heat and bring to simmer.

Note: To make Khejur gur er roshogolla, make the syrup with 1 cup of Khejur Gur(Palm jaggery) and 1 cup sugar.

Step 5 -- Make Rasgullas

Pressure Cooker 

Add about 10 raw chhana/paneer balls to the syrup and close the pressure cooker. If you have a bigger pressure cooker, add all together. However, make sure that they are not crowded. Rasgullas will swell up, so remember that while estimating.

After the pressure cooker starts steaming, turn the heat to medium and cook for about 12 minutes.
Switch off heat and wait for 2 minutes. Now release the pressure of the cooker by putting it under running cold tap water. Open the pressure cooker lid and you will see your rasgullas all puffed up and sweet, floating in the syrup.

Now remove these rasgullas along with some of the syrup in a bowl.

Note:I did only 10 at a time as my pressure cooker was smaller and as the rasgulla swells up on cooking, I did not want to crowd them. Also I found the syrup was enough for the first batch but got diluted later. So I made another batch of syrup for the next one.

Open Pot Method

Bring the syrup to simmer in an open pot. Add the raw chhena balls to the syrup. Cover the lid and boil for 30 minutes at high and 20 minutes simmer in medium heat. Best if you have a glass lid and you can see the rasgullas puffing up.

Serve warm. The best way. Serve chilled. The next best way. Make Roshogollar Paayesh. The third best way.

Shubho Bijoya, a Winner and Giveaway #2

Sorry, Sorry, I am not only fashionably late but also embarrassingly late to wish you all a Shubho Bijoya. Though ideally one can extend the Shubho Bijoya greetings for a fortnight after Durga Pujo, all the way until Kali Pujo or Diwali, we always rushed around the myriad relatives' home trying to finish the pronams by Lokkhi Pujo, the day of the first full moon after Durga Pujo.

Ghugni and Narkel Naru for Bijoya

There were always a few people who came after Lokkhi pujo to finish the Bijoya formalities and Thama, my grandmother, had very little regard for them. She usually dismissed them as "ajkalkar chele pule" aka the modern generation which in her language meant people with little respect for tradition. "Eto dine shomoy holo ?", she would say in a disenchanted voice and utter a cursory blessing making very clear her displeasure. Not that her criticism or grumbling affected the latecomers in any way, except that they were given much inferior snacks as compared to those who had come in early. The quality of the snacks in most homes was inversely proportional to the number of days that had passed since the day of Dashami and this was one of the important reasons why we tried to finish off the pronam formalities early. I think the latecomers were not really fond of food or at least not what was served on "Bijoya", mainly variety of sweets and nimki and risked being late.

Sometimes however the wind blew in favor of the procrastinators. If Thama happened to be in the Puja room or had retired early to bed, my Mother and aunt would ensure that luchis were fried and sweets were bought from the Sweet store, half a block away to feed the guest.

Now, since procrastinators are always welcome on this blog, I have two happy news for them

The important news is that we have a winner from the last draw. A certain "RRDutta" whose real name I am unaware of and who left this comment "To make an Indian lunch for my single colleague who has just joined the workforce and doesn't seem to think he has enough money to buy lunch for himself everyday.", was the one picked by random.org. Now, I have sent her an e-mail but am yet to get a reply. Maybe my mail went into the spam folder or something. If I don't hear from her in the next two days, the prize will go to the second winner picked which is "Mausumi Ray" whose random act of kindness is "My random act of kindness was and will be donating money to CRY to sponsor food, education etc. for kids."

The far more important news is we have another Giveaway. yehhh. This time I am giving away Devapriya Roy's latest book "The Weightloss Club". Now, don't get mislead by the title. This is not a book to lead you through a guilt path while you are devouring a pound of Diwali laddos. "The Weight Loss Club" has nothing to do with weight loss unless you are reading it while running on the tread mill, which I suggest you better not do. For this book, is to be read in a proper setting, by the window, with a cup of tea, cell phone switched off, some hot off the fryer pakoris by the side.
It has been my great pleasure, to know the residents of the Nancy housing colony better as they go about their daily life spiked with love, anxieties, pettiness, joys and sorrows and to be a part of their journey with a touch of mystic and now you have a chance to win your copy.

I will select two winners for this giveaway. To win your copy tell me, if you have ever lived in a housing colony, then what was the best food memory or any other memory you carry from there.

Below is an interview with the intelligent, young author. More about her here 

You have published 2 books, writing your 3rd and as I gather from the author's page in your book "Devapriya Roy is pursuing a PhD on the Natyashastra (at least, that is what she says when asked what she does). Once upon a time, she was the Keo Karpin girl." Tell us then who you really are or what defines you?

Oh dear. This is definitely the toughest question. If I were to be entirely honest. I think, before all else, I am a reader. And I am a romantic. I mean, I have written the novels, I am working on the third book which has gouged out a large chunk of my twenties, but to me it still seems that the writerliness is incidental; an extension of the two things above – being a reader and a romantic. And also, being not very good at much else. I am hopelessly bad at management and stuff. I write because I cannot not write – there is that deep internal compulsion – but I am also aware of the uncertainties of writing. But one can always read; that world is abiding.

And perhaps because I see the world filtered through a novelist’s narrative (a very dangerous thing, I admit) I am often shocked and amused at the moral high ground that is claimed by our intellectuals. You know? I mean, if we were reading about them as characters in good novels, there would be so many other details about them, defining them, that the moral high ground would have a deeper perspective. That is not the case, of course, in contemporary discourse. So, strange as it sounds, in a manner of speaking then, I think I am defined by books and by narratives.

2. Your first book was "The Vague Woman's Handbook". A charming read if I might add. What made you throw Keo Karpin aside and write it? Was there a story brewing inside you for long?

The thing about the Keo Karpin business was that it was a one-off. I mean I could never really have moved to Bombay and followed up on it and eaten carrot sticks to become that person. I don’t think I am ambitious in that way. Instead, I got married on a whim and got a job as an editor. And that is when The Vague Woman’s Handbook happened. When I was younger, I always thought I would write The Book first. Yet another stab at the Great Indian Novel. Something that would take years and years to research. And basically never get written. 

Fortunately, I had a wise mentor. He told me to write something already; something closer to my life and impulses. And that was the finest piece of advice really. I was able to use all the autobiographical stuff in obvious ways first. So with The Weight Loss Club, these were characters I knew intimately. But none of them were from my own life. So that’s how The Vague Woman’s Handbook was written. It helped that I was no longer a student of literature. I had shifted to theatre and performance studies. I was now reading loads of popular fiction. But at the same time, I wanted to do things differently even within the realm of popular fiction. Mil might be a very young but rather acceptable chick lit heroine, a bit ditzy, but hers is not a quest for love. She has already found it. 

So, in a way, the Handbook begins where most chick-lit ends. Abhimanyu Mishra, with his eccentricities, idealism and poverty is not the ‘hero’ out of a typical chick lit either. Indira Sen is at least twenty years older than the usual best friend. And so on.  

3. Tell us a little about the process from writing to publishing. Were you knocking at doors with a jhola and manuscript in hand or was it the other way round and publishers were pursuing you waving Guccis and Louis Vuittons?

Luckily, I have been in the middle. The Handbook was commissioned on the basis of the first chapter and the proposal, so I was very fortunate. Did not have to knock doors with jhola and manuscript! It can be SO harrowing. However, I have never had publishers chasing me with Guccis or Louis Vuittons or more importantly Big Fat Advances. Sigh. I wonder if that will ever be. The only time I had someone from the publishing house chasing me was the editor of my second novel, Pradipta Sarkar, because she wanted the manuscript which had been delayed beyond belief. However, I must confess, my publisher Karthika does gift me many books. Better than bags, no?

4. Your second book The Weight Loss Club has an interesting set of characters and relations and an undertone of spirituality. Did you find it more difficult to write this book? From a technical point of view, how did you manage to manipulate all these characters so seamlessly like an expert puppeteer? I mean at any point would you get confused between Monalisa and Meera?


From a technical point of view, yes, certainly, it was more difficult than The Vague Woman’s Handbook. All the characters became demanding, and I felt guilty because some were obviously getting more airtime and some were more fun to write. But the truth is, they became like relatives. Mind you, not like friends but relatives. We are likely to be more blind to our friends than to our relatives. So I got to know them all really well. I had all their details charted out too, in notebooks. Their back stories and family trees. So there was never any confusion about the people in the book, who were all very different. But there was definitely a great challenge in moving their stories forward, keeping the individual climaxes secondary to the larger narrative and most of all, in keeping it pacy and readable. I do remember calling Pradipta and telling her, ‘Never ever ever let me write a book with so many people in it!.’


5.  There was a time when we read books because so-and-so said it was terrific and so-and-so's neighbor did not sleep all night to finish it. There were no videos or book advertisements as far as I remember. We just discovered books or books found us. On your blog at IBN Live you recently wrote couple of posts about the prolific young writers of India who come equipped with sharp marketing skills. Do you think "a lack of it" hampers your book sale in any way?

Certainly one’s willingness to be out there on social media, connecting and networking, and one’s fungibility in marketing oneself through traditional media are very important factors in books selling. In my case, my grapes-are-sourish blog posts are based truthfully – and bitterly – on what I feel about this conundrum.    

Some people have fantastic selling skills. They can sell refrigerators to Eskimos. These writers fall in the first category. They are building their own refrigerators now. But it is also true that they are finding new readers too. However, there are some people who can build excellent refrigerators, sustainable refrigerators, hell, they might build talking refrigerators but not be able to sell them to a Delhi consumer. 

So that is why they need others to do that for them. But unfortunately, the world needs refrigerators more than books it seems. Publishing houses do not operate on margins that will invest in fantastic and sustained marketing for new authors. Their large-scale marketing efforts are earmarked for the Big Names. Because the marketing budgets for books are based on the print-runs. So in a way, the Bengali proverb ‘tela maathaay tel’ is entirely accurate in the publishing context. Now, thanks to the example set by these clever MBA authors, the publishing houses also expect the authors to do the marketing themselves if they want to really sell their books.

My problem with this is that it directly dilutes the culture of writing. Time being limited, you can only spend so much of it to improve yourself as a writer, through reading and writing, or you can think up marketing strategies and shooting videos and jumping through hoops in the same time. It’s like telling a serious singer to learn the tango to star in their music videos or telling sportspeople to attend acting classes to perform better in their ads. All in the spirit of very good business sense. But it means that those without business sense will remain minor. Nothing wrong with that. But it is important to embrace this.  

6. What keeps you ticking and writing?
I think it is the world of ideas and books that keeps me writing; my husband who keeps me ticking. And of course, the sense of larger failure that one feels growing up and engaging with reality in a country like India, a young country but with so much to be done, that also contributes to perseverance. You know? It comes from that mishmash – failure and hope – hope and failure.

To Cook or Not to Cook during Durga Pujo

It is fun making menus when you don't have to cook them.

Of course it is more fun when you also get to eat them. And at times it is also fun to cook them.

But today when I decided to draw up menus for the three days of Pujo, it was with a feeling of liberation and lightheartedness, the kind that comes with "thinking of doing fanciful things" without actually doing any. Of course there are people who get no such feeling from "thinking and not doing" but fortunately I don't belong there. I am the one who "thinks-fancy-worries-a-lot-and-does-nothing". That gives me peace. Amen.

You, my dear friend, are very welcome to cook any or multiple of these to make the three days of Durga Pujo isspecial.You can also choose to not cook and have an eat out session instead. Makes it as special.

Saptami
******
Start the morning with some Kolkata Egg Roll from book

Lunch with
Rice
Cholar Dal (another version in book)
Oven baked Begun Bhaja
Doi Dharosh
Chicken in Mint, Coriander, Coconut gravy
Rui Maacher Dumpukht
Cranberry Relish

Snack with Chicken Keemar Chop

Dinner eat out

Ashtami
*******

Start with Hing er Kochuri and Alur Tarkari

Lunch with
Bhoger Khichuri
Niramish Aloor Dom
Paneer Korma
Anarosher Chaatni
Homemade Sondesh

Snack with some Bhejetebil Chop or Beguni from book

Dinner at Pujo Bari

Nabami
*******

Start the day with Keema stuffed Tomatoes

Lunch with
Rice
Bengali Fish Fry
Chingri Dhan Dhana Dhan
Halka Mangshor Jhol or Railway Mutton Curry
Tomato Khejur Chaatni from book
Narkel Naru


Dinner == Eno

দূর্গা পুজোর শুভেচ্ছা

Wish you all joy, peace and happiness of the season and don't forget the giveaway in my last post.

Devapriya Roy; famous author, Keo-karpin girl, scholar and lovely lovely person is also doing a giveaway of two of my books on her Heat and Dust project page. Statistically your chance of winning now is more.