Roshogolla – Poached Indian Cheese Balls in Syrup
Durga puja ended up being a quite affair in our household. It usually is. But food makes up for the lack of other festivities. Today, to celebrate and indulge I bring you the recipe for Roshogolla, a signature sweet recipe from the Bengali table. We Bengali love desserts. No festival is complete without them.
Bijoya, Durga Puja and Roshogolla
I write this post grabbing a few minutes in my BIL’s house in Albany. The falling fall leaves do remind me of fall in India. But, I digress. Durga Puja, like many other holidays in India celebrates to power of good over evil. However, it also celebrate female power or Shakti. Goddess Durga a female goddess slays the demon Mahishasura. The 10-days of Durga Puja cover the different stages of the fight. The last day is Bijoya! Bengalis celebrate this victory with sweets. They are enjoyed with family, friends and relatives.
What is Roshogolla
The word golla is a ball or circle. Rosh refers to syrup. Hence, roshogolla refers to poached cheese balls in a simple syrup.
Roshogolla is a very popular and home style dessert. It is probably suitable for all occasions including your wind down Sunday dinner.. In fact, these days with both the Eastern Indian states of Odhisha and West Bengal, both laying claim to this simple dessert. It is hard to believe that the base of the rossogulla, a white cheese called channa or paneer was something that we learnt to make from the Portuguese. At the heart of a good roshogolla is the channa or cheese. There are variations to a roshogolla, such as this maple roshogolla or saffron roshogolla.
Celebrating Sweets
The festive Bengali however is not ready to give up his/her need to celebrate after Durga Puja. So the season of sweets and ceremony continues. In fact, the next few weeks continue in an exchange of visits and sweets culminating with Kali Puja and Diwali.
How to Make Good Channa
The rosogolla needs a few simple steps starting with the making of the paneer or channa. I have offered a fairly detailed explanation of how make the channa or fresh Indian cheese in my cookbook. Here is a really great post about the chana here. Once you have the channa down, the rest of the recipe is quite easy.
To get good soft quality channa, make sure that you begin to add the lime juice to the milk after turning the heat off.
The second component is to ensure that the channa is kneaded well. This needs to be done essentially until it is smooth and feels just a little greasy. I use a cheater technique for this. I pulse it very lightly in a food processor a tip that I picked up from Neelam Batra’s cookbook.
Once removed from the food processor, I give it a good knead with my hands for maybe a couple of minutes.
There are many aspects of Indian holidays that I am remiss about, but making sweets is certainly not one of them. Given that Indian sweets is not an every day affair in our house, that fact that I make an effort to indulge in all the sweetness of Indian desserts make it all the more special! But, all things considered, may the autumn festival or Sharodiya Utvsav be a special one for you!
How to Enjoy your Roshogolla
It depends. You can enjoy them still warm, or allow it to chill and then savor them cold.
A classic Bengali dessert recipe, rossogolla is about soft cheese balls poached in a fragrant cardamom syrup.
Ingredients
- 1/2 gallon milk
- 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 2 cups of sugar
- 3 cups water
- 4 cardamoms, bruised
- 1 teaspoon saffron strands (optional)
Instructions
- Bring the milk to a boil in large pan on medium heat. Cut the lime and squeeze in the juice and wait till the milk curdles allowing the solids to separate from the water.
- Drain the milk solids immediately in a colander line with a cheese cloth. Wash the cheese under cold water to let it cool thoroughly and then hand for at least 6 hours to let the water drain thoroughly.
- In the meantime boil the sugar and the water for the syrup with the cardamoms for 25 minutes, until the syrup is nice and thick but not overly so. It should reach a 1/2 strand consistency. Stir in the saffron if using.
- Now add the drained cheese in a mixing bowl and mix in the flour and sugar and knead well for at least 10 minutes, alternately, you can place this in a food processor and pulse for a minute until very well mixed and give it a nice 2 minute knead.
- Carefully shape the mixture unto 10 to 12 balls and cover and let the balls rest for 30 minutes.
- Bring the syrup to a boil and gently add in the balls, it is important to cook the balls in a pot large enough to accommodate them without crowding them.
- Gently simmer and poach the balls for at least 25 minutes, until the balls are nice and spongy.
- Serve hot or cold.
Notes
Most of the time is for draining the whey.