(whats the difference) well, ras malai would be in a evaporated thickened condensed version of milk and Ras Gulla or cham cham (the smaller cuter versions) would be in a sweet syrup soaked and covered in coconut or just float around in the syrupy yumminess . Most ive tasted here in the Americas would be from a can or made of ricotta cheese or some other form of powdered milk. Which i am not saying is necessarily a bad thing. Powdered milk is great for creating Gulab Jamuns and Barfi. Ive tried the Ricotta Cheese one and yes i guess it is great, well no its not great for me its always been a fail. Does not do it for me at all. So here it is before you get started you must remember that following this recipe to the tee is key hehe. So, don't get worried it is very very easy but its very very tedious. Basic cheese we make for this dish is literally the base for most indian sweets. This cheese can be molded into ras malai, gulab jamun and even khalakand depending how much fat nuts and more fat you are willing to add in it.
Basic indian sweets cheese
1 gallon of Full fat (if possible unpasteurized milk or organic milk) do not use half and half (it has powdered milk in it) and do not use evaporated milk cause that doesnt even make sense
1 cheese cloth or if you are a desi maaam then a rip out one of your white cotton wala thin dupatta
1/4 cup of plain white vinegar
Bring Milk to a boil and reduce the milk to 1/4 inch, this will get rid of the extra water
While the milk is boiling pour in the white vinegar.
The milk will start to curdle turn off the stove and let it sit until the water is separated from the cheese. (yes omg you made cheese)
sieve the contents in through the cheese cloth. Tie the cheese cloth into a ball and squeeze as much water as you can out of the cloth.
if you have one place a metal or plastic sieve in a large bowl and put the cheese cloth ball in the sieve that is in the bowl. That is important because when you store the cheese in the refrigerator the excess water will drip out and not get soaked up again.
So place the cheese in the refrigerator for 24 hours at least
After 24 the cheese is ready to be molded and made into whatever you want
PSSSSt did you know you can soak the cheese in salty brine water and it turns into mozzarella mmhmm
sometimes instead of vinegar salt is used to curdle the milk to give it that salty flavor
and this same cheese is used for a lot Arabic desserts as well.
Any ways so now to the Ras Malai
1 gallon milk
1 cup of sugar ( its a indian sweet so yeah it will be sweet if you wanna reduce the sugar go for it but might as well not call it a sweet dish either, i guess 3/4 of cup can be tolerable)
1/4 cup almonds finely chopped (run it in the food processor)
1/4 pistachio finely chopped (run it in the food processor)
Bring 1 gallon milk, sugar and coriander seed to a boil until the milk is reduced to almost half ( the milk may scorch so keep stirring)
while the milk is boiling
remove the cheese from the cheese cloth take out chunks of the cheese and start shaping them to desired shapes round or oval or cylindrical the cheese should not break.
once the the shapes are done let them sit in fridge until ready to use (this will help them dry even more)
when the milk has been reduced to almost half lower the heat and slowly drop the cheese (make sure you remove the cheese from the fridge at least fifteen minutes ahead they cannot be too cold of they make crack) into the milk cook on low for another 20 minutes
turn off stove remove contents in a dish and let it cool then refrigerate
serve cold with slice almonds or pistachios
Ras Gullas (cham cham)
To make Syrup
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
cardamon
saffron (optional)
Boil the liquid until it is the consistency of cough syrup (not too thick and not too watery)
lower the heat and drop in the cheese balls slowly the hot liquid bind the cheese and keeps it from breaking.Remember to remove the cheese from fridge at least 15 minutes before.
cook for 20 minutes and remove the contents in a dish and refrigerate. If you leave them in the refrigerator overnight the cheese will soak up a lot of liquid you can remove them from the liquid and cover them with coconut. I recommend you toast the coconut first. Looks pretty tooOther Variations
you can stuff this cheese in Gulab Jamuns
You can use it for making barfi by adding the same weight amount of nuts (processed to almost a paste) and half amount fat (ghee or butter) and sugar
you melt the sugar first in the pot simply throw the sugar in the pot turn on stove and stir until the sugar has liquefied completely not browned immediately add in the fat then the nuts paste cook for 3minutes then finally the cheese. You cannot leave the spot for even a second, must stir constantly. Remove immeadiately once incorporated.
quickly remove the barfi and place in a dish , let it cool. The barfi will set when cool
