DATE FLAVORED ROSOGOLLAS
Soft and spongy cottage cheese balls infused in dark and rich Date syrup is a perfect treat for any occasion.
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 1½ ltrs Whole milk / Full fat milk
- 2 tbsp Vinegar / lemon juice
- 3 Cloves
- ½ inch Cinnamon
- ½ cup Date syrup
- 2 cups Water
Instructions
Making the Chenna
- In a thick bottomed pan add the full fat milk, keep stirring in between and let it come to a rolling boil.
- Layer a cheesecloth/muslin cloth on a colander and keep it ready.
- In a bowl dilute the vinegar/lemon juice with a tbsp of water and add it to the boiling milk, give a stir and switch off the stove.
- In a few minutes you can see the milk starts curdling and starts to separate from its whey.
- Now just strain the curdled milk in to the cheesecloth layered colander and rinse the cheese under cold running water to help get rid of the sourness from vinegar/lemon juice.
- Squeeze out all the water by tightly twisting and loosening up couple of times, and squeeze again to get rid of all water as much as you can.
- Now make a tight knot and hang it somewhere/place it in colander and put some weight on it to get rid of all the water remaining in it for at least 30min to 1 hour(recommended).
Making of Chenna balls
- Take out the strained cheese out of the cloth on to a clean plate and start kneading it, until you feel its coming together and oily, and it shouldn't stick to your palm anymore.
- Take a small amount of kneaded cheese gooseberry size and roll it tightly to until its crack free and smooth and place it on a plate gently and cover it with cheesecloth.
Making the Rosogollas
- In a wide pan add the two cups of water and bring it to boil, now add the dates syrup and let it dilute completely in the water and bring it to rolling boil and reduce the heat level to medium.
- Now gently add the rolled cheese balls one by one in to the boiling date syrup, cover the pan and cook for 15 min until they double up in size.
- Now they're ready, switch off the stove and once they cool down to the room temperature transfer them to an airtight glass container and chill in them in refrigerator till serving.
Notes
1. Always make sure you're using the full fat milk.
2. While boiling milk keep stirring it intermittently to avoid the milk solids sticking to the bottom of the pan.
3. It is always recommended to use a wide pan while boiling rosogollas as they double up in size, they need room to float in there.
4. You can substitute the date syrup with any sweetener like sugar, Jaggery etc., just make sure you're altering the measurements accordingly.
5. If you feel like the chenna/strained cottage cheese is still wet or has moisture then you need to squeeze out the water again and rest in a colander by adding some weight on it.
6. Adding whole spices (cloves and cinnamon) is completely optional.