Re: Ras Malai
my longest post everrrr on GS … only for sheynnn 
Ras Malai from scratch
Paneer:
you need at least 2% milk … whole milk is better. higher the fat content of milk, greater the paneer yield.
4cups 2% milk
approx 2 tbs lemmon juice.
cheese cloth/muslin cloth
large sieve
line your sieve with the cheese cloth and keep in in the sink. you’ll need this ready for later.
In a nonstick pan, bring milk to boil on med-med high heat. stir occasionally to prevent sticking at bottom. once milk is boliing , add lemon juice … 1 tbspn … stir, stir … you will begin to see curds forming. add the remaining lemon juice. continue stirring. You will know curdling process is complete, when the liquid takes on a watery, greenish hue.
immediately trasnfer to a sieve lined with cheese cloth or some sort of a soft, clean porous cloth. run cold water over top of curds to stop the cooking process. Your aim is to get soft sticky, crumbly paneer. If you over cook this … your paneer will be rubbery …
squeeze ou excess water from the paneer by twisting the cheese cloth around. Hang in from your faucet or something (:D) for at least 30 min to drain out allll the liquid.
Sheera/sugar syrup:
4 cup water
1 cup sugar
cardamom powder/seeds/pods … whatever you have handy
bring this mix to a rolling boil in a large pan … you need a large pan caue your ras malai tikkias will double in size while they cook.
Rabri/milk sauce
in my opinion, one should start making the rabri first, as it takes a long time …
4 cups of milk
sugar to taste
nuts of your choice
cadamom
saffron (optional)
place milk in non stick pan and cook on low/med heat till its nice and thick. consistency id really your choice … some ppl prefer real thick creamy othet prefer a thinner sauce. anyways, add sugar to taste, stir to melt. you can always add more milk if you find yourself with a too thick sauce. add nuts. lastly add cardamom.
once all done, transfer to a bowel in which you intend to store/serve your ras malai.
WHAT TO DO:
- once your paneer is hung n ready. dump it out into a bowel or clean countertop … kneed. the crumbles should come together into a soft, silky ball.
break off bit to make small ball. flatten out the balls gently, then put a thumb print in middle. be gentle. I make 10-12 balls out of 4 cups of 2% milk. - Take your paneer tikkias and put them into **HOT/boiling **sugar syrup/sheera. if you try to do this in luke warm syrup, your tikkis will fall apart :(. so yea nice gentle rolling boil.
cook approx 7-10 min. you know its done when they double in size.
turn off stove, remove the tikkis and some of the syrup into a seperate bowl n let them cool to room temp. once cool, pick up each … gently … give it a little squeeze to get the excess surup out ( you want this tikki to suck up the milk sauce … don’t you
) … so yea don’t skip this step. - place the squeezed out paneer tikkias into the milk sauce. garnisk with additonal nuts. cover and chill before serving.