Ras Malai

[Suvir Saran]

I miss Ras Malai, and have not found even one restauran in NYC that serves a half way decent one..

Does anyone know of a secret place where they find good ras malais.

Or even a recipe for a good one?

[anil]

Nope    The irony is that many of the cooks from greater bengal (I'm being a "bhodrolok" on this   ) can easily do this -- However they choose not to do so --- Suvir, I'd suggest that you post this to

the NYC forum and maybe someone would post someplace we missed  

[Simon Majumdar]

I am happy to say that Ras Malai is very easily available in London and at a very good quality.  That doesn't help you guys much though  

I have tried to make them on occasion and found it reasonably easy just using a jersey milk ( I am not quite sure what you would use in the US ) this is a whole milk with a thick cream.  Perhaps you could use half and half.  I bring this up to a rolling boil and then add lemon juice ( or citic acid ) and then take off the heat and stir until the chenna ( curd ) forms.  I then collect and strain this in muslin under a running tap and then squeeze until almost dry.  I then mix in some flour ( about a teaspoon ) and knead gently.  There is a particular type of Indian flour which I can't remember but corn starch works  as well.

I make these into little balls and then heat them through in a sugar syrup ( just sugar and water boiled together ).  When they are warmed through, I add a little rose essence.

I have not made this for a while but it got a good reaction when I did.  I served with a reduced cream with cardamom and pistachios.

I am sure that this is not quite recipe book standard but it is a close approximation of what I have had from the Pradeep Sweet mart ( Near Northwick Park Hospital ) undoubtedly the best Indian Sweet Shop in London.

S

[Jinmyo]

Based on Simon's description, I'm pretty certain that Nagina's in Ottawa makes these.

Again, no good to Suvir or anil but perhaps to someone...

[Sandra Levine]

You may consider those at Sapphire unsatisfactory, but, admittedly, without a reliable benchmark, I thought they were the best I've ever had.

[Suvir Saran]

When the chef is inspired or has made them herself, the ones at Nirvana in NYC have been my favorite.  I ate the ones at Sapphire.  But it was soon after they opened.  Maybe I need to go back.

Simon: Thanks for the recipe.  It is close to my own.  But I use all purpose flour. Never used corn starch.

[Suvir Saran]

Sandra:  Thans for the lead with Sapphire.

[Suvir Saran]

I was eating lunch with Durga Prasad yesterday. We were debating why Indian desserts are of such poor quality in the US. All across the Tri-State area I have gone hunting for desserts and not yet found anything but Jalebis that are even satisfactory. How sad.

Durga blamed the milk. He said the milk was somehow killed by the dairy owners in the process of making it acceptable for consumption.

How can one get milk like back home?

Would Dairies be willing to sell raw milk to fools like me that would want to enjoy desserts from back home with the same level of taste?

[Suvir Saran]

And another famous Indian chef said it is better to be less exposed to stuff of high quality and standard. If one is ignorant and has not tasted what is superlative, he said how would one then know the difference. He was referring to the Indian vendors that have begun selling stuff they were never exposed to back home and the American clients that do not know better. He called these two people a perfect match. "Match made in heaven", he said. They each need the other. Both are driven by greed alone, "no substance".

He was speaking of vendors that proudly sell sub-standard Indian sweets and do not even understand what a crime they have committed by selling that junk. And those bold souls that are willing to try something new. How are they to ever know that they are being cheated of the real experience?

I was astounded by the sheer ease with which he made this statement. I was upset at myself and also felt limited in what I could do. I have been debating since yesterday what I should and can do about this. I too have known for the longest of time that too many things that we love of India and crave from India, are now available in the US, but are far from good. But even I, one who never felt he would accept things that did not meet a minimum standard, have faulted my own sensibilities by remaining silent. In my silence I have aided in this crime of bringing credibility to what does not deserve any acceptance.

Maybe he could say it with such clarity for he was the most recent immigrant out of all of us. He has been in the US only close to 2-3 months. He has not yet started missing the things from back home as dearly as those of us that have lived here for years.

How can we change this from happening?

We need more Indian food fascists and perhaps then we can begin seeing a difference in the quality of the desserts.

[Haggis]

We need more Indian food fascists

How bout a Mulligatawny Nazi, or maybe a Sambar Storm Trooper or a Rassam ReichsFuhrer? Perhaps we can enlist the services of one Babu Baat.

In all seriousness, Indian desserts are almost always dissed in reviews of Indian restaurants in America. Those with pedestrian tastes are warned that they are too cloyingly sweet, and should be skipped over. I've always thought this to be very unfair, even though I agree in part. What's needed are skilled dessert chefs, just off the boat, who can prepare the dishes as you and others remember them. How hard is THAT?

I am one who has never been to India, so I do not know what I am missing. Still, I have had a handful of what I consider to be very good desserts in Indian restaurants over the years. The part of me that agrees with the caveats of the critics is the part that recognizes that it's a shame that it has only been a handful over the years. I have had good firni, good mango pudding, and good carrot halwah, but I have never had a decent gulab jaman or ras malai. I think American Indian restaurants would do well to cease describing Ras Malai as "deep fried cheese ball" despite its accuracy. Makes it sound unappetizing, dontcha think?

[Suvir Saran]

I think American Indian restaurants would do well to cease describing Ras Malai as "deep fried cheese ball" despite its accuracy. Makes it sound unappetizing, dontcha think?

That would be a good start. For one, they are not deep fried at all.

For real... there is no deep frying in Ras Malai.

Between the green recent immigrants and the unfamiliar non-Indian audience buying this junk, they have each helped the other enjoy what is unreal.

I have no clue from where "deep fried" got associated with ras malai.

[Suvir Saran]

What's needed are skilled dessert chefs, just off the boat, who can prepare the dishes as you and others remember them. How hard is THAT?

There is a shortage of skilled "halwais" (pastry chefs) even in India. They are a dying breed. So, the pool of trained and worthy Indian dessert chefs is very limited and almost skeletal.

What further exasperates the whole situation is that it was not till recently that trained Indian chefs from India were sponsored and brought into the US. Till most recently and actually for the most part even now, men who had never ever cooked even at home, let alone in a professional kitchen, were hired to fill the role of chefs.

With a growing interest in Indian food and with the great reviews given to worthy Indian restaurants from the likes of Gael Green and Eric Asimov, restaurant owners understood the need for trained professionals being hired to run their kitchens. Well, getting them to do that was not an easy step forward in the life of the Indian food movement. But is has begun to happen.

Now, maybe in the next few years, some of these owners and chefs will understand the need to bring in trained pastry chefs from India. When that happens, American diners and those from India by ethnicity but not birth will finally find a true sampling of Indian desserts. Till then, we are unfortunately only eating the junk that is being sold in the name of Mithai (sweets) from India.

[Sandra Levine]

How can one get milk like back home?

Would Dairies be willing to sell raw milk to fools like me that would want to enjoy desserts from back home with the same level of taste?

When I was a little girl, it was possible to get "certified milk," that was neither homogenized nor pasteurized from the Walker-Gordon farm in New Jersey (long ago turned into condos or an industrial park.) This milk was considered superior to the milk commercially available. Certified milk is still produced in small quantities, but I don't know where to find it now.

This website has some suggestions, including Hawthorne Valley Farm, which comes to the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturdays and perhaps during the week, too, but I don't know if their milk is actually "certified."

[Suvir Saran]

I have tried that milk. It does not froth the same way.. and when boiled does not give the same amount or even close to amount of cream that we get when boiling milk that is certified back home.

Mind you, even in India today, most milk is homogenized and pasteurized. But still, it boil differently and tastes far superior. I am told the temperatures and procedures are different.

[Sandra Levine]

The milk with the highest percentage of cream available here is from Jersey cows. In the Berkshires and maybe in Columbia County, NY, you can get milk from High Lawn Farms, which has a herd of registered Jerseys. It might be be worth trying.

[anil]

I have tried that milk.  It does not froth the same way.. and when boiled does not give the same amount or even close to amount of cream that we get when boiling milk that is certified back home.

Mind you, even in India today, most milk is homogenized and pasteurized.  But still, it boil differently and tastes far superior.  I am told the temperatures and procedures are different.

Wrong question - Wrong Answer.

What you are talking about has to be qualified - Cow's (Gai's doodh) milk Vs Buffalo's (Bhains ka dhoodh) milk -

In Northern India, of what I knew as daily routine, one used the two differently.

In many suburban, and SMSA 's of cities it not not uncommon for the milkpersons (Dhoodwalas) to bring the cows/buffloes to one's yard to ensure fresh, unadultrated milk......

But then I'm only recollecting from memories of things past.

[Sandra Levine]

So should the question should be, where can one get buffalo milk here? Even that would not suffice, probably. American buffalo are a different species.

[anil]

So should the question should be, where can one get buffalo milk here?   Even that would not suffice, probably.  American buffalo are a different species.

I do not know - You ask a valid question - I am unfortunately unqualified to evaluate. I only made the statement based on my memories of past -- where I heard the wise folks in the family make this distinction --

IMHO - If the rasmalai taste's good -- then's its passsed the Turing Test (even if the hypothesis is flawed)

[Sandra Levine]

mmm...like risotto

(never mind)

[Suvir Saran]

Wrong question -  Wrong Answer. 

What you are talking about has to be qualified - Cow's (Gai's doodh) milk Vs Buffalo's (Bhains ka dhoodh) milk -

In Northern India, of what I knew as daily routine, one used the two differently.

In many suburban, and SMSA 's of cities it not not uncommon for the milkpersons (Dhoodwalas) to bring the cows/buffloes to one's yard to ensure fresh, unadultrated milk......

But then I'm only recollecting from memories of things past.

But even the lighter cows milk is richer when not treated as we do it here.

And of course the buffalo milk is another story entirely.

In some homes only Cows Milk is used for it is considered holier and so sweets are only made from that milk in the first place.

And then there were kids like me that loved the richer Buffalo milk and fought with their grandmother for permission to drink raw but chilled buffalo milk. Nothing like it. I love buffalo milk. Chilled and plain. Heaven on earth.

[Suvir Saran]

So should the question should be, where can one get buffalo milk here?  Even that would not suffice, probably.  American buffalo are a different species.

I am told by a friend from the Midwest, who raises cattle and has traveled with me to India that we in the US do not have that kind of cattle.

It is called "Water Buffalo" by him. And they are very different from the American Bison or Buffalo.

He was in too much of a rush to tell me more.

But he did tell me that I should be confident in saying that we will never get the same milk here. He drank it several times daily and was amazed at the creaminess.

He also did fall in love with the Indian Buffalo.. found them very gentle and friendly.

I never thought of thinking of them as being any different from cattle any where else in the world.. but he says their being raised with families and without machinery makes them very intimate in their relationships to human beings.

Can that be true?

[anil]

.......

I am told by a friend from the Midwest, who raises cattle and has traveled with me to India that we in the US do not have that kind of cattle.

It is called "Water Buffalo" by him.  And they are very different from the American Bison or Buffalo........

Can that be true?

"Bhains" ..... The water buffalo. Duh! Yes, quite true, given the handicap I have of not being a cook on any kind, I only observe - Your's is a more acute

insight .....

[Suvir Saran]

Anil, where outside of India have you had Ras Malai as good as you once spoke about in another thread... I think you had eaten some delicious ones in Calcutta if I remember.. or was that Simon?

Since you travel a lot.. you may have found better versions in other countries... Is that the case? Where are those restaurants or stores???

Simon says he gets great Ras Malai in this special store in London. IN fact he has promised to bring some next time.... I am not holding my breath on that one.. for I know it has become increasingly difficult to do such things since last year.

[Simon Majumdar]

You are very right Suvir

Last year just after 9/11 I was trying to bring some Rabri into my uncle in NY and had it taken from me at customs even though it was cooked food

I am sure they had it for supper in the staff room

You could ( if you didn't mind getting beaten up for making such a bad pun ) call it Daylight Rabri

S

[Adam Balic]

Suvir - Water Buffalo are quite different to Domestic Cattle. Lucky for you they have started milking Buffalo in the USA, so you should be able to source milk if you wish.

http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2002news/waterbuffalo.htm

My Indian friends tell me that Buffalo milk has much less sugar then Cows milk and that it was always sugared before drinking in their home, is this your experience?

Simon's recipe sounds similar to making "fake ricotta" (lemon juice to make the curd, rather then rennet), could use use very good grade fresh ricotta to make the Indian desert?