Komolabhog
Winter… A perfect time to make komolabhog. In this preparation, I have used juice only from fresh oranges and most importantly, no food colour. Being a researcher myself, I know the hazards of using these chemicals. This does not mean, I do not buy any food from stores, which use food color. But, I strictly do not use any while preparing something at home. The colour of this komolabhog comes from the saffron strands that I have added and from the oranges itself. The zest from the oranges, made into a paste was added while making the gollas was enough to render a beautiful colour to the komolabhog balls.
Our campus, has a huge collection of citruses. From pomelo to gondhoraj lebu to juicy and sweet oranges you can find huge gardens around. The oranges that were used in preparing komolabhog were actually collected from the institute.
Komolabhog
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Bengali (Indian)
Preparation time: 15 minutes +waiting time
Cook time: 40 minutes
Servings: 8 pieces
Ingredients
- 1 litre milk
- 2½ cups of orange juice
- 2/3 cup of sugar ( may vary according to the sweetness of orange juice)
- 1 teaspoonful of all purpose flour/maida
- Zest from 1 orange
- 8-10 saffron strands
Directions
- Bring 1 litre of milk to boil.
- As the milk comes to boil, add 1/4 cup of lemon/orange juice to curdle the milk
- As the greenish whey separates from the milk, strain the chhena, wash it with water and hang it to remove all to the excess water.
- Hang it for at least 1 hour to remove all the excess water.
- Take the chenna in a plate. To it add about half teaspoonful of flour. Also make a paste of ½ teaspoonful of the zest and it to the chenna. (See Notes)
- Knead the mixture well (for about 10-15 minutes) till the chenna becomes smooth and you see oil on your palms
- Now make lemon sized balls and see to it that there are minimum or no cracks.
- Make sugar syrup by dissolving the sugar in 1 cup of water . As all the sugar melts, add the orange juice to the pot.
- Gently, drop the chenna balls and cook them in the syrup for 10 minutes on medium high flame.
- After 10 min lower the flame and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.
- To check if the rasgullas are done, drop one in a cup of water. If it sinks, it is done. If it floats, cook for a couple of minutes and check again.
- After the rasgullas are done add half a cup of cold water to stop the cooking otherwise the rasgullas become chewy and hard. You can also remove the rasgullas in another container.
- Let them cool and serve. Enjoy this seasonal variety of homemade rasgullas.
Notes
- The oranges needed for komolabhog needs to be sweet.
- While making the zest, take care of not taking the white part of the peel. Taking the white part will make your komolabhog bitter.
If you are looking for step by step instructions to prepare komolabhog, it is just like rosogolla or nolengurer rosogolla. You can follow these links to get all the step by step instructions.
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