Comilla r Roshomalai:- Rasmalai from Bangladesh
Comilla is a city in southeastern Bangladesh and it is city, which is very near to my parent’s ancestral home. According to Wikipedia “On 21 November 1921, Kazi Nazrul Islam composed patriotic songs and tried to awaken the town people by protesting the Prince of Wales’s visit to India. During this time, Avay Ashram, as a revolutionary institution, played a significant role. Poet Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi visited Comilla at that time. In 1931, approximately 4000 peasants in Mohini village in Chauddagram Upazilla revolted against a land revenue tax. The British Gurkha soldiers fired indiscriminately on the crowd, killing four people.[citation needed] In a major peasant gathering, the police fired at Hasnabad of Laksham Upazila in 1932. Two people were killed and many were wounded. Comilla Cantonment is one of most important military bases and is the oldest in East Bengal. It was widely used by the British Indian Army during World War II. There is a war cemetery in Comilla that was established after the World War II to remember the Allied soldiers who died during World War I and II, mostly from Commonwealth states and the United States. There are a number of Japanese soldiers were buried there as well (taken entirely from Wikipedia. Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comillafor more details)
According to my father, there is something else Comilla is known for-its roshomalai (also known as Rashmalai). I have never been to the city; however, I have eaten the roshomalai, thanks to my various relatives who visit us every year from Bangladesh. It is simply amazing and the roshomalai we eat in India, at least according to me, is a distant cousin of this verity. There is also a famous sweet shop in Dhaka, Moronchand, which sells amazing Comilla r Roshomalai. My mother got the recipe from one of the shops in Comilla in one of her many visits to her parent’s house. I enjoyed making this one for the first time ever and could not stop eating until finished. It was simply divine. Hope you like it too. Lets welcome ‘Devi Durga’ with some sweets!
Ingredients
4-litre full cream milk (For the malai)
2-Litre full fat milk for chana/paneer
2-cups sugar
4-cups water
2-tablespoon plain flour
3-tablespoon sugar dust
1-Lemon (juice taken)
50gm-Pishtachio (cut)
Method:
1. Take the 4 litre milk in the heavy bottom pan and heat on a very low flame. Keep stirring it occasionally. Keep in on the flame until the milk is reduced to almost half or less. Start the process of making the rosogolla
2. Boil the rest of the milk in another pan and slowly add lemon juice to make the chana
3. Drain the chana using a strainer/ Muslin cloth. Wash the chana so that it does not smell of lemon.
4. Hang the cloth so that water drain properly from the chana
5. Take the chana in large bowl or on kitchen slab
6. Add the flour, sugar dust
7. Use your palm to knead the chana into smooth dough. The better the kneading the better will be your roshogolla
8. Meanwhile take water and add sugar on flame and make sugar syrup. It is not a thick syrup.
9. Now make balls of the chana. Remember that they will become twice their size once they are in the syrup. Also make sure there is not crack on the chana ball, otherwise they will crack once in the syrup
10. Add the chana balls in the syrup and cover the lit for 7/8 mins. The balls will double in size
11. Take the lid off and add 1 cup cold water and cook for 15-20 mins
12. Press one roshogolla if it springs back to its actual size, then you know that it is done.
13. Take off the flame and cool it totally ( say after about 2/3 hours)
14. Take the roshogolla off the sugar syrup and add them to the reduced milk ( only when the roshogolla have cooled off otherwise they will break)
15. Heat the milk and roshogolla for another 30 mins until the milk has become really thick and entered the inside of the roshogolla
16. Add pistachio
17. Serve chilled
