Chocolate rasgulla

I think the time has come for us to choose a national sweet. We have our national bird, national animal and what have you — but we lack a national dessert. And, to my mind, it’s clear who deserves the slot. Those rooting for the payesh and the payasam may send their appeals (those backing Mysore Pak needn’t bother) — but the clear winner is the rasgulla.

And I’ll tell you why: it’s available everywhere; it’s easy to prepare and needs just a few ingredients; and it brings cheer to Bengali homes through the year. And especially in this period of loving and giving immediately after the Pujas, it’s to be found in every house.

In fact, for most Indians, the signature Bengali sweet is the rasgulla, which the northerner tries to pronounce (in a bid to sound like the Bengali) with so many ‘’s that it seems he has a few rasgullas in his mouth. The sandesh has its place, no doubt, but the rasgulla rules. I doubt if there is any Indian who’s not at least once had a rasgulla.

But rasgulla, some of you will argue, is a bit ho-hum. What can you do with a bit of chhena, sugar and water? Actually, quite a bit — as I discovered during my recent conversations with three Calcutta chefs. If you give a twist to the old rasgulla — adding a few items to the basic ingredients, you can open up a whole new world of rasgullas.

Mango rasgulla

For instance, have you ever tried a wasabi rasgulla? Harpawan Singh Kapoor, the executive sous chef and pastry chef at the ITC Sonar in Calcutta, has come up with the dish that combines the flavours of the sweet with the heady kick of the wasabi. And senior executive sous chef Govind Shaw of The Peerless Inn, Calcutta, has given a new turn to rasgullas by infusing flavours in the chhena (cottage cheese) balls.

You could, for instance, add mango pulp to the chhena and essence to the syrup. He suggests that you can flavour rasgullas with coffee or prepare chocolate rasgullas by adding drinking chocolate to the chenna, and then flavouring the syrup with chocolate essence.

Some of our chefs believe that the rasgulla can be presented as a health food too. It already is one — it’s a sweet that’s not been fried and the chhena is so good for health that people suffering from jaundice are often advised to eat rasgullas. But chef Rupam Banik — earlier with Peerless and now the executive chef at The Pride Hotel in Calcutta — says the sweet can be a health freak’s delight (if you can just ignore the sugar, that is!) by infusing it with something like the pulp of jamun or aloe vera gel.

Chef Banik suggests you add the pulp or the gel to the chhena when it is being kneaded. “Jamun is good for people suffering from diabetes, aloe vera is good for everything,” he says.

Cognac rasgulla

Chef Kapoor has come up with another innovative rasgulla — and that’s prepared with brandy (a good cognac works better, of course). For the brandy rasgulla, the chef says the chhena should be mixed with refined flour. Add 200ml of brandy to it and make small balls. Then follow the steps given in the recipe for wasabi rasgulla, except that you have to add another 200ml of brandy to the thin sugar syrup. Serve the rasgullas warm or at room temperature. The chef adds that you could even serve them on a bed of brandy sabayon (a frothy sauce prepared with egg yolks), garnished with dark bitter chocolate.

I like these new ideas. For one, something new is always appealing. And two, with these recipes, we can divert attention from a bitter debate that has been going on for a long time. A Marwari sweet-shop owner told me once that the rasgulla had originated not in Bengal but in Bikaner in Rajasthan. I conveyed this to my Bengali friends and they rose like a soufflé. What nonsense, they said, bending a spoon or two in righteous indignation.

Let the debate carry on. Meanwhile we can continue with the festive season with the new recipes. The rasgulla has never been this sweet.

Wasabi Rasgulla
(serves 8-10)

Ingredients:

• I kg chhena • 1.5 + 1.5kg grain sugar • 100g refined flour • 150g wasabi powder

Method:

Rub chhena (home-made cottage cheese) with the refined flour uniformly. Add 150g of wasabi powder to it and mix. Make uniform balls by rolling the mixture in between your palms. Make sugar syrup of light consistency with 1.5kg sugar and a sugar syrup of a thicker consistency with the remaining 1.5kg sugar. Poach the balls in the thick consistency sugar syrup for 15 minutes. Take them out and drop them in the light consistency sugar syrup to store. You may serve them warm or at room temperature. The chef suggests they be served on a nori sheet.