Today,as I write this,I am overwhelmed with memories of Aja and Mama (maternal grandfather and grandmother), the two most loving and peaceful people I have known. Every time I think of them, love and peace fills me up. My wandering mind often goes back to afternoons, when I would escape from the engineering hostel and snuggle my face beside Mama in bed, after a bad exam or in plain anxiety that the future held for a 20 year old – of career, love and life. Consoling me, she often had the best things to say, running her softest hands in my hair – “Just do the right thing…. karma is powerful, be grateful, pray and leave the rest to God.”
Aja owned a sweets shop in Darjeeling for good odd 40 years…. Shreekhetra Mishtanna Bhandar. Bou recounted stories of how hard he worked in the cold winters of Darjeeling since he was 14 to make a living, of how they as children, hardly met him, how he carried hot rasagollas in a glass for them, when he returned late at night. Even when Aja and Mama grew old and feeble, overcome with a bad knee and losing memory, they had love and well wishes for anyone who came to their door – always checking if the driver had their cup of tea and the little boy with the vegetable vendor got some sweet meats. On my first visit to Bhubaneswar after my wedding, they carefully rolled out sattu filled kachuris and packed them in sheets of paper, giving me instructions on how to fry them perfectly and feed everyone in the new house.
On our visits from the hostel, Aja and Mama would lay out all the goodies they carefully stored for their grandchildren – some freshly sliced coconut from the temple, home made dahi, sweet biri bara. Up after the afternoon nap, Aja would slowly pull out his parat from under the wooden bed whose legs rested on high bricks. The dish would be nicely wrapped in newspaper….on days there would be sattu filled kachuri , khasta gaja, sweet chena mudki , on some days beautiful golden pantuas forked with holes to drink in the chashni and sometimes heavenly soft rasagollas swimming in ecstasy.
For me the earliest memory of a rasagolla is Aja sitting on the pidha in his dhoti and vest, rolling out chena balls, sometimes four together. He rolled them with all the delicateness he held in his heart, not a hard feeling for any soul in the world, smiling as he rolled them… telling us how the real maal was in the milk. The milk had to be good quality and the chena had to be rubbed carefully as he dropped the gorgeous balls into chashni.
So today, I thought of sharing the recipe of Rasagolla on paper. The first and most important ingredient is patience. I hope and pray, you get it right the first time but it’s one of those things that need practice. Every time I make these, I feel Aja is guiding me, telling me when to stop putting the vinegar and when to knead the chena a bit more. So if you really want to show someone your love through food and have some time on your hands the go for this one. All you need is full fat milk – I would recommend milk from a dairy. Ingredients are simple, like all good things in life … milk, sugar, maida and vinegar.
Ingredients : 4 litres milk (makes about 35-40 medium sized rasagollas, this depends on the quality of milk)
Sugar 2.5-3 cups. Don’t be scared with this, this can be reused. And the 40 rasagollas won’t drink it all up.
Water – 4-5 litres
Vinegar – 200 ml of vinegar. Don’t stick to this as a measure. Stop putting it in the milk when you see the milk turning into chena and the greeninsh yellow water separating.
1.5-2 tablespoons maida
The Procedure – Firstly, put the milk to heat up. Once you get the first boil, switch off the gas. Take it off the heat and add the vinegar, slowly stirring the milk with one hand. Once you see the milk curdling to form the chena and the greenish yellow whey separating, stop adding the vinegar. It will bundle up into luscious soft chunks of chena. Keep a strainer with a soft cheesecloth ready to strain the chena on the other side. Now once the whey is a clear liquid, strain the chena. Kept it lightly tied with the cloth for 2 hours in the strainer, letting the excess water drain. Don’t strain the chena, putting pressure or it will lose it’s fat and moisture and rasagollas will turn rubbery.
After 2 hours, take a deep bottomed vessel. Pour in the sugar and water and let it come to a rolling boil. You may flavour the chashni with elaichi or kesar as you wish. I like to keep it simple. As this becomes ready to boil, roll up your sleeves to give a good maalish to the Chena. Take out the chena on to a big tray/ plate/ parat. Mix in 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of maida and then use the base of your palm near your wrist to rub the chena maida mixture for about 10 mins. The movement is almost like what grannies would do on a sil bata…. Rubbing the mixture from one side to another and then back. Then start rolling then into balls…. Trying to put even pressure from all sides and trying to make a ball with minimum cracks. Cover and keep these balls under a cheesecloth so that they do not dry out.
Once you have rolled out these glistening gorgeous balls, drop them into boiling chashni and cover them. Do not open the cover for 10 mins. After ten mins, use the back of the ladle to gently stir the delicate goodies. Your rasagollas, now nice and plump in the chashni, would have doubled in size. If you keep the lid open for too long, they will shrink. So give a quick stir and cover them back again for another 10 mins. For 30-40 rasagollas, doing this one more time is enough. The overall cooking time is 30 mins. Switch off the flame and leave it to rest for an hour, if you can hold on to your patience. Else please do taste a hot one.
Some important tips and tricks – Use a deep vessel to make the chashni and a fitting cover for it. A flat vessel means the rasagollas won’t get enough space to roll and do their dance so they will turn out flat like pantuas. The vessel should be broad and deep to have enough place for the rasagollas.
The final product is heavenly – melt in the mouth and divine. Truly, food of the gods🙏. Rasagollas will always remind me of Aja and Mama and their unconditional love for one and all.
Foodforthesoul 