Rasmlai-with egg!!

When I was about 8 years old, I and Nada used to go tho the park in our compound everyday to play with our neighbors. We would play for about 2 hours or till Umma sent for us. On one such day, we were feeling unusually hungry and decided to go to one of our friend, Afia's house to fill our stomach. Afia's mom had prepared these cold juicy rasmalais. That was the first time I tasted rasmalai. And the best too.

My aunt Noorialama keeps taunting me telling me that though I know to prepare dishes from around the world, I am blank when it comes to Indian food, our Desi food. I guess it is true. And it is probably so because I have never really been attracted to Indian food. And even those things that I love are either prepared by Umma or easily available in the stores. So I never attempted them.

But now, I have decided to attempt some real indian food, specially Manglorean food. And what better to start off with than desserts, my forte. This is the same recipe that Afia's mom had used. After that day, I have tasted many rasmalais, but nothing could bet these.

Traditionally rasmalai is prepared with paneer(cottage cheese). I have used a shortcut method which tastes just like the paneer version. The whole dish comes together in 30 minutes. They taste best when they are cold, but if you don''t have the patience, then enjoy them hot.

Just last week I had made tres leches cake, and somehow, I think these Indian rasmalai are similar to Latin tres leches cake. Both of them comprise of a soft cake holding a ton of sweet milk within it. You might laugh at this comparison, but this is just my opinion :)

Egg Rasmalai
makes 12 rasmalais


Ingredients:
1 mug(about 125g) milk powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tsp oil
1.5 litres milk
1/2 cup sugar(adjust according to your taste)
1/2 tsp caramom powder
1 tsp rose essence
few strands of saffron
pinch of salt

Method:

• Heat the milk along with salt and sugar.
• /in a bowl, sieve milk powder and baking powder together.
• Add the oil and egg and mix well to form a dough.
• Immediately form small balls(keep in mind that the balls will expand while cooking). See to it that there are no major cracks in the balls.
• Keep the balls covered with a cloth till the milk starts boiling, else they will get dried.
• When the milk starts boiling, drop the balls. 
• Increase heat and immediately decrease.
• Cover and let it simmer till the rasmalais are cooked and expand in size.(5-10 minutes)
• To check if the rasmalais are cooked, take a rasmalai and break it open. The whole ball must be uniformly coloured.
• Let them cook for 2 more minutes.
• Switch off the flame. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir carefully. The rasmalai are brittle and can break easily.
• Let the rasmalai cool.Refrigerate and serve cold.

Note: If the dough becomes dry and starts cracking, wet your hands and knead the dough. Keep the dough covered if you are slow in forming the balls to prevent them from getting dried..