SUGAR FREE ROSHOGOLLA

A litre of full cream milk gives me 9-10 standard sized roshogollas. I am not a roshogolla / Bengali  non-fried, no oil  dessert expert, the latter's calculation may differ from mine. At this moment, I am unable to think this way.... what difference does a twelve or thirteen make? It does make a difference, we will not know unless we experience. Anything, any damn thing, be it a loss or a joy..... we have to experience it ourselves to know it's extent.... others will send a single day of congratulations or condolences, they have to move on with their own lives.  

The sugar free "roshogollas".. that is cottage cheese balls swimming  in a pool of sugar free stevia syrup is making me happy. With Roshogolla, my experience had been bitter sweet. Somedays it comes out just fine, while some other days, it does not work at all. Then, I had to do some research to correct the flaws because our son loves it for sixteen years now. I do not like the roshogolla we get here, I do not buy the tinned ones airflown from India.... the option left with me is doing them at home, our only son loves it after all. The husband too loves it but not the sugar free option. Their home eats their dessert sweet which I never could get along with then, now it is out of question. After marriage, his relatives served me luchi with five to six types of sweets and desserts and I was about to puke! I am not disrespecting their good intent but I use less than half of the sugar  preparing the same amount of payesh than they do. 

The son happily had a few of the SUGAR FREE ROSHOGOLLA"... the husband ate but did say it was not "Satyanarayan Mishtanna Bhander er roshogolla", that famous sweet shop in DumDum, Bancharam is baby to them.... one who sales well may not necessarily be good at it. The mother too told it was good; why not share the recipe in the blog?

I had a good time with the mother, she took good care of my Gods & Goddesses, enjoyed going out with me, ate what I suggested. She has to take care of everything back at home, the brother & his spouse are working! I tried to give her some rest.... allowed her to cook only for the grandson some days.... I have a wonderful support system in Cristine. The mother too applauded Cristine's "porota" making skills, having it while watching old, recorded cricket matches as old as Chris Lloyd or Viv Richard's batting. I remember, while at school how as a family we were made to watch sports on television.... we had to and we enjoyed, then gradually my mind shifted from that box into print media totally. 

Coming to the present, we had a wonderful tour of the Singapore museum yesterday afternoon, we had non vegetarian soup and meal too for lunch and dinner though it was Rather Mela, but for dinner we had to have " papor bhaja" meant for the day. The grand mother was reminiscing how she would decorate the grandson's chariot with flowers and leaves and how he loved going out with it along with the maternal grandmother and the paternal grandfather. Look at today, such dates have no relevance to him, after coming here his father's influence worked more on him, he thinks defying me in every matter is a manly act.

Anyway, that he ate a papor bhaja with rice yesterday or enjoys a SUGAR FREE ROSHOGOLLA treat from his mother is a good enough reason for me to cling on to a ray of hope. I enjoy preparing roshogolla because it requires few ingredients and is considered a healthy sweet among us. How come sugar syrup be healthy?

INGREDIENTS :

FULL CREAM MILK : 1LITRE [MEIJI WORKS FOR ME, I PREFER USING FRESH MILK]
VINEGAR : 2 TBSP
WATER : 7-8 TBSP + 4-5 COFFEE MUG
SUGAR FREE GRANULES : 200-250 GM [I USE STEVIA IN POWDER FORM]
GREEN CARDAMOM : 3-4

ICE-CUBE : 5-6

PROCEDURE : 

Take the milk in a heavy bottomed vessel and put for boil. Dilute the vinegar in 7-8 tbsp water.

Once the milk comes to boil and have boiled for not more than 2-3 minutes, add the vinegar-water mixture to it, 1tbsp at a time.

As the milk starts curdling, add the ice-cubes & switch off the gas burner.

As soon as the whey forms, "immediately" strain through a clean, white piece of cloth placed over a strainer. Wash under water, tie and hang it on your kitchen tap.

After about 45 minutes to an hour, squeeze and take the chena / Indian cottage cheese down on a plate and open the knot.

Remove the cloth and start kneading, use your palm. This may take about 10-12 minutes to get the right dough.

Tear off smaller portions of the dough and prepare smooth balls.

Take 4-5 coffee mugs of water in a clean vessel, to it add the stevia powder and slightly torn green cardamoms. Bring it to a boil.

When the syrup starts boiling vigorously, add the balls gently and cover with a heavy lid.

The first 10-12 minutes should we boil at high heat and the rest of the 10-12 minutes at medium heat. Some inputs should be ours, use that. With trial & error, roshogolla perfects with practice and at the frequency it is done!