[Sca-cooks] indian cooking

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

margali wrote:
>IIRC they are paneer dumplings in rosewater...

Perhaps you are thinking of rasgulla (also spelled rasgolla). Milk
dumplings (traditionally made of fresh whole milk cooked down to a
paste, but now modernly made with moistened powdered dried milk,
often described as paneer, but not quite) are fried. They are then
soaked in rosewater syrup. And the "dumplings" suck it up like
sponges, so they are not only floating in the syrup, they are fully
permeated with it. Every bite squirts syrup into one's mouth. I'm not
a syrup kinda guy - even waffles or pancakes get no syrup, even pure
maple, from me, so I don't like rasgulla because they're too sweet
for me.

>Saffron Paneer Dessert

That's a recipe for rasmalai, "condensed" milk dumplings similar to
those in rasgulla but not fried, which are served with rosewater
cream. I love rasmalai because more cream (and less syrup) is always
better :-)

As for kheer, which is a rather nice "rice pudding", i prefer firni,
which is similar, but made with rice flour, so it is even smoother
and creamier.

And have you had kulfi? It's a kind of ice cream - but very unlike
Western ice cream - much denser. Flavored with saffron and rosewater,
sometimes with pastachios, and often with cubes of cream in it.

Anahita