Comilla r Roshomalai: A start to the celebration of Durga Puja
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/Comilla
for 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
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