I am sending this Bengali sweet to PJ http://seduceyourtastebuds.blogspot.com/2010/11/announcing-celebrate-sweets.html who is hosting this event  which was started by Nivedita from Nivedita’s kitchen http://niveditaskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/09/details-of-event-celebrate-sweets.html

Ingredients:

Whole milk or 2% reduced fat milk -8cups

Lemon Juice– ¼ cup

Sugar-2½ cups

Cheese cloth/muslin cloth

Water-61/2 cups

*Sugar needs to be adjusted according to individuals taste.

To make Paneer:

Bring 8 cups of milk to boil.  Use a heavy bottom pan so as to avoid burning of the milk. Cook on medium heat.

Stir occasionally, once the milk comes to boil dilute ¼ cup of  lemon juice in little water and add slowly into the milk and stir the content.

Milk starts curdling. Turn off the heat when paneer gets separated from the whey and strain the whey from paneer using a cheese cloth or muslin cloth.

Run cold water under paneer for few minutes and remove excess of water by squeezing gently.

Tie the muslin cloth/ cheese cloth tightly so as to remove all the water content and hang it for an hour for the moisture to drain.

Make sure to remove as much as water as you can. To check if the paneer is ready, take a small piece and rub it with your palm, it should not stick to your palm and you should be able to make a smooth ball. This is the most critical step in making rasgullas or rasmalais. Remove the paneer from the cloth and knead softly, make it into round balls.

To make Rasgullas:

Add 61/2 cups  of water into the pressure cooker and 2½ cups of sugar. Heat it until all sugar dissolves and allow it to boil for 3-4 minutes. Add the paneer and pressure cook for 9-10 minutes.

Make sure there is enough space for the paneer to bloat. Once cooked, the paneer doubles in size.

Cool them down and refrigerate for few hours before serving.