Simon requested this a few weeks ago. I have the most amazing Indian cookbook in the world–Classic Indian Cooking, by Julie Sahni, and he likes ras malai but finds it hard to obtain and…well…I’m a sucker for bearded men.

So I made it. And promptly swore I would never do so again.

See, the thing about Julie Sahni–the recipes are In.Cred.I.Ble. Amazing. Really real tasty Indian food, no shortcuts, no cheating, no cream-of-chicken soup.

But they all take three hours. My stress level went way down when I stopped trying to make Indian food on weeknights. Don’t do that. Just trust me.

But, on the other hand, if you have an empty Saturday, and you like the way warm milk smells…make this. It’s creamy and sweet and curdy and almondy and really quite wonderful. Use fresh, whole milk (please–do not attempt this with anything less than whole milk), and take your time with it.

I had an empty Saturday, and was planning to make paneer anyway, and…well…bearded men. Yeah.

Be ye warned: This will take all day, it will use every bowl in your kitchen, and you will go through almost a gallon of milk to produce sixteen little balls of cheese in a creamy sauce. Do it anyway.

Making paneer is a good thing to do when making this recipe, by the way. It’s exactly the same process, except that the paneer will get squashed under something heavy for half an hour after draining, then can be chopped up and used as…well…paneer. Good stuff.

Ras Malai

Classic Indian Cooking, by Julie Sahni

Cream Sauce (Rabadi)

5 cups milk

Bring the milk to a boil in a shallow pan, such as a chicken fryer. This will hasten the process of evaporation. Reduce heat to medium, and let the milk boil for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until it reduces to 1.5c. (Note: I have never once been able to reduce milk from 5c to 1.5c. I let this boil for two hours–at least!–last time I made this and no dice. So I gave up.) Stir now and then to prevent its sticking to the bottom of the pan and forming a skin on the surface. (A skin will prevent steam from escaping; it also slows the evaporation process. To reduce the milk quickly, the skin should either not be allowed to form, or be broken as often as possible. Cool the sauce briefly. If you want a smoother sauce, put it in the container of an electric blender or food processor, and blend until it is smooth. Transfer to a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate until needed. The cooling and chilling will further thicken the rabadi to 1.25c.

Cheese Dumplings

8c milk
3-4T lemon juice (about 1 lemon’s worth)
2t all-purpose flour
.125t baking powder

1. Bring the milk to a boil in a large heavy-bottomed pan. Reduce heat, and add 3T of lemon juice. Stir gently until a white curd forms and separates from the greenish-yellow whey, about 10 seconds. If no curd forms, add a little more lemon juice.

2. Drain the curd through 3 or 4 layers of cheesecloth or a thin fabric, placed in a colander or sieve in the kitchen sink. Hold the colander or sieve under the tap, and let cold water run at medium speed through the curd for 10 seconds. Bring up the four corners of the cheesecloth and tie them together. Gently twist to extract as much water as possible, and hang the cheese to drain for 90 minutes. There should be 10.5 oz of cheese.
   
   Note: In the picture there is much more than that. That’s because I made a double recipe, and split half out for paneer. If you want to make paneer, all you do after you let it hang is press it under a weight of some kind for another 30-60 minutes. Then…boom…paneer. Just so.
3. Remove cheese from its cloth, and transfer to a butcher block or marble surface. Working with the heel of your hand, break the lumps very gently. Knead the cheese for 5 minutes, or until it becomes somewhat doughy. Use moderate pressure; it is important not to destroy the grains of the cheese so that the curd does not become a paste. Form the cheese into a thin circle. Mix the flour and baking powder together and sift several times. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the cheese and knead again for a few minutes to mix thoroughly. The kneaded cheese dough will be very soft, moist, and sticky.
4. Divide the cheese dough into 16 equal portions, and roll the small pieces into balls. Flatten the balls into 1.25-inch round pillows with your hand, and set aside on the workboard while you make the sugar syrup.
   

Sugar Syrup

I don’t follow these proportions, as I think 8c of sugar is kind of way overkill, and generally this just makes too much. Mine are in parentheses, and they work just fine.

8c sugar (2c sugar)
.125t cream of tartar (.0625t cream of tartar…just a smidge)
9c water (4.5c water)
1T cornstarch dissolved in 2T water (.5T cornstarch in 1T water)

1. Mix the sugar, cream of tartar, and water in a large heavy-bottomed pan with a tight-fitting lid. bring to a boil, stirring now and then to dissolve the sugar. Boil the syrup rapidly, uncovered, until it registers 200F on a candy thermometer (about 10 minutes). Add the cornstarch solution, stirring rapidly. Reduce heat to settle the syrup to a gentle boil. (Note: Since I don’t use as much sugar, I don’t find the candy thermometer to be necessary (and also, I don’t own a candy thermometer). Just give it a good solid boil for 10m or so, and you’ll be fine.)
2. Gently slip the cheese patties into the syrup, being careful not to crack them. let them simmer in the syrup, uncovered, for 30 seconds. (This process heats the patties and cooks the outer layer so that they hold their shape and do not fall apart during the boiling which is to follow).
3. Increase the heat to maximum, and bring the syrup to a vigorous boil. Cover the pot with the lid, and let the patties cook in the boiling syrup for 20m. It is essential to keep the temperature constant during these 20m of cooking so that the syrup does not get too thick. This is done by adding 3-4T cold water every 3 minutes (you will use about a cup of cold water in all). If the syrup boils over, you may have to add the cold water every 2 minutes, or turn down the heat just a little so that the syrup continues to boil vigorously without boiling over. The cooked patties will puff up like dumplings, and float just beneath the surface of the syrup. Turn off heat.
   
   (Note: This is another SUBSTANTIAL advantage to halving the amount of sugar. Not nearly as much care is needed to make sure it doesn’t boil over; just turn the heat all the way up and check it every 7 minutes or so; skip the fiddly adding-of-cold-water entirely. I tend to poke the dumplings with a spoon to flip them over, but that may or may not be necessary. I’m an inveterate food-poker anyway, so as you like.)
4. Gently remove 1.5c of the syrup from under the floating dumplings, being careful not to break any, and pour it into a deep bowl. Thin this syrup with 3c of cold water. Transfer the dumplings to this diluted light syrup. When slightly cool, cover and refrigerate until ready to assemble. (Note: I usually skip this entirely, and just cover the whole pan and set it to cool. I’m telling you, halving the sugar is totally the way to go on this. Inauthentic, maybe, but darn if it doesn’t save time.)

Assembling Ras Malai

16 cheese dumplings in light syrup
1.25c cream sauce
6 blanched amonds, sliced or powdered (I usually use slivered blanched almonds, and just give them a good smooshing in a mortar and pestle.)
1T slivered unsalted pistachios (I also just use whole pistachios, and again with the mortar and pestle smooshing.)

Carefully take the dumplings out of the syrup, one at a time, pressing them lightly to extract excess syrup. Dip them in cream sauce, and arrange them in one layer of a shallow serving dish. Stir the almonds into the remaining cream sauce, and pour it over the dumplings. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to cool thoroughly, turning the dumplings in the suace a few times. Just before serving, sprinkle with pistachios. (Or you could be a lazy haole like me, and just squoosh out the extra syrup, lay them flat in a large tupperware container, stir up the milk and almonds, and dump the cream sauce on top.)

And there you have it, folks. Ras Malai. A milkier dessert I certainly don’t know. Enjoy!

shf sugar high friday IMBB shf17

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