Culinary Escapade

For someone that is lactose intolerant I love all things dairy. From ice cream and milkshakes to smelly cheeses, I indulge in them all and pay for it later.

A couple of years ago, a friend introduced me to an Indian sweet called rasmalai and provided me with another dairy item to be addicted to. These balls of paneer sit in cardamon flavored milk. Making them from scratch was never something I thought of doing. It looked like it would be complicated.

Then one day a friend and I decided to make some to go with the Indian meal we were cooking up. I was really surprised at how easy it was to make. She told me that this was a quick way of making it. No paneer or cottage cheese was used in the making of this. We used skim milk powder and made balls out of those.

A quick note before I move on to the recipe: I created a Facebook page for my blog. If you happen to have Facebook, you can become a fan of my page and keep up to date via Facebook.

Quick Rasmalai

4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp crushed cardamom seeds
1 tbsp ghee
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup skim milk powder
1 whole green cardamom
1 egg, beaten
Choppped almonds for garnish
Saffron threads for garnish (optional)

Method

- In a heavy saucepan, bring milk to a boil, with the whole cardamom and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Once the milk boils, reduce heat to very low and let simmer uncovered while you make the balls.

- Mix milk powder, baking powder, crushed cardamom seeds, ghee and egg in a bowl. The dough is ready once it comes away from the side of the bowl.

- Seperate the dough into equal parts, you should get between 15 and 20 pieces, and roll into balls.

- Drop the balls one at a time into the simmering milk. Cover and let simmer for 10 mins or until the balls have doubled in size. The balls should be floating.

- Remove from heat and keep covered to cool. Garnish with chopped almonds and saffron threads when ready to serve.