The craze for Rasgulla started a few months back. Don't know where she came to know of the dish but she got obsessed with it. Went on youtube, selected a recipe. And much to our surprise selected a hindi version with English captions on it. Dutifully ( For a good 1 & 1/2 hrs) wrote the recipe by pausing at each and every line. This was during the phase of crazy writing where she was writing something or the other every day,mostly love letters to her mom & dad.
Since then she has been behind me to make Rasgullas at home and somehow in my head that seemed a frightening proposition. I have all sorts of conditioning in my head about what can be made at home and what can't..probably because I have always tasted these dishes only at marriages or parties or restaurants. Never seen anyone in my family cook some of this stuff at home. And now Chellu is slowly breaking this conditioning ..and is started with baking - cakes, muffins, BREAD!! and now the latest is Rasgulla.. I kept putting it off till a few days back she sat with me and patiently explained to me that it is not as hard as it looks . The look is her eyes finally broke my fear and laziness and I decided to make her wish come true.
Yesterday we kicked off the process. Bought some milk since that's one ingredient that's no longer available anymore in our house. We watched the recipe on youtube again and it seemed really easy. We set off to do it and Chellu was the one who did most of the tasks. I supervised and helped her a bit.The part I contributed the most was making the dough soft. She also took over the gas part of the cooking for most of the time. She would also go and check out the recipe video from time to time to ascertain that we were on the right track. The Rasgullas came out fantastic and once again I'm all in admiration of this child who is so driven with her passion to cook. When she is cooking she is a diffn child. Her whole being glows in her enthusiasm. It is during such times that I experience true learning with her. When body, mind and soul are in tune. I am always amazed at how she starts something out of her pure interest and covers all the ground in research to make it to happen.
Here are the pictures.
Since then she has been behind me to make Rasgullas at home and somehow in my head that seemed a frightening proposition. I have all sorts of conditioning in my head about what can be made at home and what can't..probably because I have always tasted these dishes only at marriages or parties or restaurants. Never seen anyone in my family cook some of this stuff at home. And now Chellu is slowly breaking this conditioning ..and is started with baking - cakes, muffins, BREAD!! and now the latest is Rasgulla.. I kept putting it off till a few days back she sat with me and patiently explained to me that it is not as hard as it looks . The look is her eyes finally broke my fear and laziness and I decided to make her wish come true.
Yesterday we kicked off the process. Bought some milk since that's one ingredient that's no longer available anymore in our house. We watched the recipe on youtube again and it seemed really easy. We set off to do it and Chellu was the one who did most of the tasks. I supervised and helped her a bit.The part I contributed the most was making the dough soft. She also took over the gas part of the cooking for most of the time. She would also go and check out the recipe video from time to time to ascertain that we were on the right track. The Rasgullas came out fantastic and once again I'm all in admiration of this child who is so driven with her passion to cook. When she is cooking she is a diffn child. Her whole being glows in her enthusiasm. It is during such times that I experience true learning with her. When body, mind and soul are in tune. I am always amazed at how she starts something out of her pure interest and covers all the ground in research to make it to happen.
Here are the pictures.
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| Squeezing lemons |
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| Filtering the "chenna" |
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| Squeezing out all the water to make the perfect chenna |
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| Washing the chenna with water to get rid of lemon's sourness |
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| Kneading the chenna to make it soft |
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| Preparation of sugar syrup |
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| Making Rasgulla balls |
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| Boiling the chenna balls in sugar syrup |
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| Very happy ! |
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| Yummy Rasgullas ready to be refrigerated! |
Everything about this post is beautiful! Shutha, your writing and the pictures. Rightly captures all what life should be about. Congratulations on your efforts!
ReplyDeleteThanks chitti! What a surprise to hear from you. How have you all been? How are the girls? I was so hoping to see you all at Shridhar's wedding! Will miss you all..
DeleteBtw I'm convinced that Chellu's craze for cooking is SO genetic! You CAN'T keep these guys off the kitchen you see! ;))My love to Pallu and Neythra and Chitappa. Your comment means so much to me. So delighted to hear from you! :))