It is a little difficult to define 'Rosogolla' - if I say, a traditional round sweet dish made of cottage cheese and immersed in simple syrup, I would be doing injustice. Rosogolla is a tradition of Bengal, is the grand finale to any Bengali feast and is something very close to the heart of all Bengalis, even for one like me who has no sweet tooth. It reminds us of home and unites and provides an inexplicable comfort for those of us living far away.
This weekend I hosted a friend's Shaad (traditional Bengali baby shower). It was a potluck and since I did not do most of the cooking, I decided to make something sweet for a change. I had been intending to try out this challenging recipe for a few years. For those that are not aware, as simple as Rosogolla looks, it is equally difficult to perfect.
Ingredients (Makes 40):
Milk - 1 gallon
Sugar as needed
Semolina/flour - couple of tsps
Lemon - 2.5( big)
Water for syrup
Jaggery (gur) optional
Cardamom - 6
Amidst all chaos around a two and a half year old at home, I boiled the milk and curdled it with the juice of freshly squeezed lemon. I strained the cheese that came out of this as a result and left it in the strainer for a while, squeezing out all the liquid from time to time.
Thanks to daddy who agreed to take the little one out on some errands, mommy concentrated on mashing the cheese with some semolina as long as needed to get a smooth texture. Small amounts of this cheese was shaped in round balls between two hands and the surface smoothed with little water, if needed. It is important that the surface of the balls be smooth to avoid them from cracking later on. In parallel, mommy also prepared some simple syrup (sugar + water + cardamom) in a pressure cooker.
When the syrup was boiling, I immersed the round cheese balls and pressure cooked them for 20 minutes. When 20 minutes were over, I switched off the burner and let them stand in the cooker. I read somewhere that it is important to be not curious and to not let the steam out forcibly. This can harden the rosogolla. I waited patiently (the toughest part) until the cooker had cooled down and put them in a deep bowl of warm simple syrup, this time made of water, sugar and jaggery. After pressure cooking all the cheese balls (I needed to make them in batches), I thickened the syrup and added it to the serving bowl.
Daddy and toddler came back just in time and I quickly drifted from my serene cooking time to sprinting around the house with the toddler's lunch, and soon found myself running around the house tidying it up for the evening. By evening, the rosogollas had the right amount of sweetness in them. Depending on how sweet you like them, adjust the viscosity of the syrup in the serving bowl. Dinner was served with fanfare and my dear friends complimented me on the success.
I did not get to eat any that night because my grand finale was a cranky howling child who did not want the party to end and was very very upset that her friends were leaving.
All other moms will know that I am not being sarcastic when I say "its all worth it" :-) I was proved right when the next morning I received a big hug and was wished "Happy Mother's Day" by the little devil who turned into an angel overnight :)
