Rasmalai
Chocolate heart rice
- 250 GRAM COTTAGE CHEESE
- 200 GRAM SUGAR
- 50 GRAM PISTACHIOS, chopped
- 6 CARDAMOM PODS, split and use the small seeds
- 3 CUPS OF MILK
- 2 TBSP SEMOLINA
Mix the cottage cheese with the semolina, knead well and form 6 flat balls. Put them in the fridge for one hour. Bring one liter water with 150 gram sugar to the boil and poach the cottage cheese balls 15 minutes. Take them out carefully and allow them to cool down. Cook the milk with the cardamom on low-to-medium heat until it has reduced to two-thirds. Stir in the remaining sugar and allow it to cool down. Pour the sweet milk into a deep dish, arrange the cottage balls in the milk and sprinkle with pistachios.
My rasmalai looks a bit messy, I wonder why they look better at every street corner. That must be my impatient nature. As a working mother and Worldcook, I have to cook after work (work after cook would give my employer a close-to-zero result). And as I am not only cooking Bangladeshi food, but currently living in Bangladesh as well, a one-and-a-half hour power cut each night cannot be escaped. So there I am, cooking, kneading and panting away in candle light. Because this recipe must be prepared today, obviously!
"Amar Ekushey" is celebrated in Bangladesh on the 21st of February. Click on culinary calendar for more links between cooking and celebration.
Bring the milk to the boil, add the rice and simmer for half an hour. Melt half of the chocolate with half of the cream. Stir the sugar, the orange rind and the rest of the cream into the hot rice pudding. Break the remaining chocolate in pieces. Spoon the rice pudding into small bowls, and put some chocolate pieces in each of them, press them well inside the rice. Pour the chocolate sauce on top.
This recipe originates from the beautiful book "Chocolate" written by Trish Deseine, the Northern Irish female chef with French cooking habits; I slightly adapted it.
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