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Love is in my Tummy

Plant-based flavor

March 23, 2016 By Tina Dawson 2 Comments

Easter Special – Rasagulla Eggs in a Bird’s Nest

If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, you’d know how bonkers I am about Easter and eggs. And sure, as I do every year, at breakfast this Easter morning, I’ll be stuffing my face with an insanely large number of eggs, this time most likely in the form of this gorgeous Indian spiced Frittata.

I thought long and hard about a vegetarian version, that even non-egg eaters could enjoy. India being a largely vegetarian country, I wondered which popular, yet traditional dessert could fit the bill. The first thing that came to my mind was the pristine and succulent Rasgulla.

What is a Rasgulla? 
Some say that the Rasgulla originated in Orissa and was made popular by the Bengali cuisine. But no matter its origins, it is supremely delicious nevertheless.  The name Rasgulla is coined from the words ‘Ras’ meaning juice and ‘Gulla‘ which means ball. Translated, it literally means Juice Ball. Each bite, delivers a flood of sugar syrup into your mouth, the milk solids acting as the spongy vessel that holds all that juicy goodness inside. It is amazing how so few ingredients could create such amazing versatile deliciousness, as you can add color, flavour and so much more, as the Rasgulla is first and foremost – a sponge. I soaks up anything you put it into.

It didn’t take too much work to craft them into eggs – all they needed was a coloured ‘yolk’.

All eggs need a warm nest to snuggle into. And what better than the Turkish Baklava Bird’s Nests. Traditionally made with phyllo pastry, these Bird’s nests are one of my favourite Baklava’s – mostly because of their texture, and the fact that their shape never ceases to amaze and amuse me. I wonder what was going through the creator’s mind as he/she crafted shredded phyllo sheets to form a nest… I mean, why a nest? Not that I’m complaining!

I did not craft my nests out of phyllo pastry, but with vermicelli instead, which is more Indian than phyllo is.

Put these together, and you got yourself an Indian-Turkish dessert based on a largely Christian tradition. I’ve always said this – food is the simplest and the most delicious way to unite the masses.

This Easter, step away a little from the usual and now, mundane chocolate eggs and make yourself something exotic and indulgent.

A few tips to make soft, spongy rasgullas –
1. Use whole milk. 2% milk may work, but you get best results with whole milk.
2. Use lime juice to separate the milk, but if you have whey water at hand from previous milk separations, use why instead. Using whey water to separate milk yields softer paneer/chhenna.
3. Once the milk solids separate from the whey water, remove from heat immediately. Cooking milk solids hardens them, resulting in harder, chewier rasgullas.
4. While cooking the rasgulla balls in sugar syrup, use a vessel that is wide enough to accomodate the balls generously. They expand to twice their size, and unrestricted movement is essential for their sponginess.

And for the nests:
1. Buy the superfine kind of vermicelli. Don’t break the strand. Unbroken strands are easier to fashion into a nest.

This is how paneer looks after letting the milk curds hang somewhere for 30 minutes. Crumbly, moist, fresh paneer! I got 78grams of paneer from 500ml of whole milk.

Knead the crumbly paneer using your fingers and base of palm until it starts ‘sweating’ fat, turning your hand slightly greasy.

Divide and color the ‘yolks’

Make a small hole in the white ball using your little finger, place a coloured ball inside, and seal it closed. Roll using your palms to smooth any cracks.

Make sure the pan is big enough (wide and deep) to let the balls move freely (while cooking) without being crowded too much.

Shape the bird’s nests using a muffin pan.

Rasgulla Eggs in a Bird’s Nest

Created by Tina Dawson on March 29, 2016

These Indian Rasgulla 'eggs' in a Turkish Baklava inspired Vermicelli nests are an exotic alternate to the usual chocolate Easter eggs

  • Prep Time:35m
  • Cook Time:40m
  • Total Time:8h 5m
  • Serves: 6
  • Yield: 6 nests and 22 eggs

Ingredients

For the Rasgulla 'eggs'

  • 500 mL whole milk
  • 2 tbsp. lime juice
  • 1/2 c sugar
  • 1 1/2 c water
  • 1 pinch yellow/orange food color (for the egg yolk)

For the Vermicelli Bird's Nest

  • 74 g superfine vermicelli
  • 1 tbsp. ghee/butter
  • Sugar syrup from the above made rasgulla
  • 2 tbsp. water
  • 1 pinch of cardamom powder (optional)

Instructions

For the Rasgullas

  1. Boil the milk in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat, stirring continuously.
  2. Once it comes to a boil, lower heat, add the lime juice and let it sit covered for 10-15 minutes till the greenish whey separates.
  3. Drain into a muslin/cheesecloth held over a colander. Save the whey water for other uses.
  4. Squeeze out the whey as much as you can, and let it hang for 30 minutes.
  5. Unwrap the paneer and knead it for 10-15 minutes until the fat begins to separate.
  6. Divide the dough using a 1/2tsp measure into about 23 - 1/2" balls. Cover the dough while working.
  7. Take one ball, and knead in the pinch of food colouring. Divide this into 22 tiny balls.
  8. Place the colored ball into the white ball and seal it closed by rolling it inside your palm.
  9. Repeat with the remaining balls. Cover and set aside.
  10. In a medium sized pan, combine the sugar and water and let it come to a rolling boil.
  11. Add the balls into the sugar syrup, cover and cook for 2 minutes over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook for 13 minutes.
  12. Uncooked rasgullas float in water. When cooked, they sink. If the rasgulla balls are still a little uncooked, boil them again for an additional 5 minutes.
  13. Let it cool in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours, or overnight to set the porous, spongy rasgulla texture.

For the Bird's nests

  1. Melt ghee/butter in a pan. Roast the vermicelli over low-medium heat turning over, once lightly browned and fragrant. Take care not to break the strands.
  2. Once both sides are slightly toasted, add in a few spoons of the sugar syrup from the rasgullas. You may flavour it with cardamom powder at this stage. Sprinkle a few spoons of water.
  3. Cover and let it cook until soft, sprinkling a little water as needed for it to cook, then remove from heat.
  4. Take a small bunch of vermicelli strands and fashion it into a nest using a muffin tin or any other mould of your preference.
  5. Bake at 180°C/350°F for 10 minutes.
  6. Transfer immediately to a wire rack and it will crisp as it cools. If you do not transfer while still warm, then it will be harder to remove from the pan. Heat for a few minutes to loosen it up, then remove.

Assemble

  1. Place one or two rasgullas inside the nest. Garnish with chopped nuts, spoon over any reduced syrup leftover and serve.
  • Print

Note: This post is labelled under ‘5 Ingredients or less’ because each component for this assembled dessert requires less than 5 ingredients. If you chose to make them individually, that’s just how little you’ll need.

*The nests soften with prolonged contact with air. So serve immediately.

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Filed Under: 5 Ingredients or less, All Recipes, Indian, Vegetarian Tagged With: 5 ingredients or less, Indian, Inspired by food, Vegetarian

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jasleen says

    August 9, 2016 at 7:26 am

    Awesome…….I am loving the description and photography of ur recipes….

    Reply
    • Tina Dawson says

      August 9, 2016 at 11:59 am

      Aww Jasleen, thank you so much for those kind words! I hope you come back again!

      Reply

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Hi! I'm Tina - the human behind all the content you see on this blog. Welcome to my little corner of the internet where I create flavorful and unique plant-based recipes.

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