After yesterday’s Karnataka special Damrot, we move to a very popular recipe from Odissa and parts of West Bengal. Sandesh, Chamcham, Mishti Doi are some of the popular milk based sweets in this region. I was reading up on Indian Sweets, and both the name and the dish appealed to me. And then I remembered that I had tasted this at Bhubaneshwar while travelling on work many years ago.
I have attempted a Low fat version of this without deep frying, and there wasnt any difference between the original and the adapted version : have made this twice already, and considering the husband is rather averse to milk based sweets (he would rather have a large bite of dark chocolate as dessert ! Sigh :-)), he quite liked this mildly sweet dessert.
I have adapted the dish from here, with some minor variations. This recipe in rather laborious but I hope the step by step pictures will help you. Do check this out and let me know how you liked it.
Prep time : 20 mins ; cook time : 25-30 mins ; Serves : 6-8
Pista Rasabali – an Indian Dessert made with Pistachios and reduced milk
Ingredients:
- Chenna / Mashed Panner – 1 cup
- Sooji / Rava – 1 tsp
- Maida / All purpose flour – 1 tsp
- Powdered sugar – 2 TBSP
- Full Cream Milk – 1 litre
- Milk powder / Skimmed milk powder – 1/2 cup
- Saffron strands – few
- Powdered Sugar – 3/4 to 1 cup (we like it mildly sweet)
- Cardamom powder – 1/4 tsp
- Sliced pistachio and almonds – for garnish
- Oil – for shallow frying (about 4 TBSP)
Method:
- Soak the saffron strands in few tsp of warm milk.
- Boil the milk in a deep bottomed thick pan till it reduces till 2/3, now take some hot milk in a separate cup and add the milk powder to make a thick paste – add this paste back to the hot milk along with half the powdered sugar and reduce to half. Add the remaining sugar, saffron strands and let it simmer for 3-4 mins more and starts leaving the sides of the pan. Switch off.
- Knead the chenna / Mashed panner along with the maida and sooji to a smooth dough with the heel of your pal. Add 2 TBSP of powdered sugar, a pinch of cardamom powder, and cover and keep for 5 mins. Pinch out a small portion and smooth out into little balls as you would do for the Gulab Jamun. Either deep fry or use an abelskiver / Paniyaram pan to fry these (I used the latter) on a very low flame till done and slightly golden brown on all sides.
- Add the fried rasabali to the flavoured milk mixture. Simmer for 2 mins more, add the pistachios and slivered almonds , let it soak for 1/2 hour, serve warm or cold.
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Now I am drooling ! Kalyani i am sure i will like this sweet even I am not fond of milk based sweets , but this sounds awesome .
what a fantastic sweet…and making it low fat is so good..
Super inviting sweet Kalyani. I love milk sweets and this is definitely bookmarked..
Rasabali looks sinfully delicious! Though it is a laborious, specially reducing the milk, am sure it was worth all the effort.
Wow Kalyani, your Rasabali makes me drool. Such a sinful treat indeed.
Sinfully delicious rasabali,i am literally drooling Kalyani..
What a delicious dessert this is and I am so tempted to eat some right now.
Drooling over this tempting dessert from Orissa.
That is a fantastic dessert, Kalyani. I am drooling here!
Preparing a low fat sweet is pretty difficult.. you have nailed it. very nice kalyani.
Rasabali looks absolutely droolworthy, wish i get a bowl rite now.
Bookmarking this one Kalyani. Its yum
Sounds really delicious, Kalyani. I would have started preparing it right away, if my son would have been not away at college. He is the one who is ready to share the major calories with me when it comes to desserts at my home. 🙂
Love your low fat version of the Orissa dessert Kalyani. Using the paniyaram pan is such a cool idea.
I loved how you used paniyaram stand to make these balls. The Bengali sweet looks classic!
That is so sinful kalynai, Low-fat or not, i wouldn't mind such a delicacy!!!!
I just had my lunch. Need it badly….drooling
This looks so amazing! I am a huge fan of milk sweets and I have to try this one
this looks like some find Kalyani..never heard about it before..and it will give the gulab jamuns and rasgullas a run for its money the way it has turned out..must try