Raas Malai- the Sweetest Delicacy!

Ingredients:

• Full-cream Milk - 1.25 gallon/ 4.5 liter
• Vinegar - 4 tbsp
• Sugar - 5 cups
• Green Cardamon - 2

Methods:

• 1. In a non-stick pot , bring half a gallon of milk into boil by simmering on very low heat. Reduce the milk to half the amount by keeping it simmering for about 2-3 hours on low heat. Remember to stir occasionally to avoid any burns or lumps.
• 2. Mean while, in another pot bring the rest of the milk to boil. Once it starts bubbling, turn the heat off and add the vinegar. The milk solids (chana) will separate from the whey.
• 3. Drain it in a cheese cloth, and hang it somewhere to drain for about 1.5- 2 hours. Do not squeeze to get the water out faster. This will make the chana (cottage cheese) hard and result in harder sweets.
• 4. Back to the evaporated milk, once the milk has reduced to a thick sticky consistency (you will know when you dip a wooden spoon in the milk and a thick cream sticks to the spoon) add 1 cup of sugar (or to your preference) and keep stirring to melt in the sugar completely. Your sweetened cream is done, set it aside and let it cool. Once cold , keep it in the fridge until it is required for the sweets.
• 5. Meanwhile in a pot with a wide surface area, make the simple syrup by adding 4 cups of sugar to 5 cups of water and the cardamons. Simmer on low heat, and keep it warm while you make the chana balls. You need a large pan*, because once you add the chana balls they will puff up and take up as much area as you give them, that means the bigger they will get.
• 6. Once the chana has properly been drained out of all the liquid, knead it with 1 tbsp of sugar for about 6-10 min. The more you knead it the softer the sweets will be.
• 7. Form tiny little balls out of the chana, the recipe allows for about 70-90 balls. Once all the chana balls have been prepared, poach them in the simple syrup for about 20 min on low-med heat, covered. Do NOT open the lid while cooking. This will make the balls shrink and hard.

• 8. Once the 20 min is up, turn the heat off and let the sweets cool down. Do not open the lid until the pot is cool to touch. This will make sure the sweets are soft and spongy. Soak the sweets in the syrup for about 24 hours.
• 9. Then transfer them (drained of the syrup) to the sweetened cream and soak in the cream for 24 hours more, refrigerated. The longer you soak the sweets, the sweeter and plumper it will get. After the 2 long days of waiting, you can serve the sweetest delicacy ever. It is no doubt a lot of hard work, but the result is heavenly!!!
  

Hints:
* If you do not have a large enough pan, then cook the sweets in two batches or use two different pots, that is what I did. This also means that you need to divide your syrup in the two pots or make extra syrup for two different pots.