Do you have sweet teeth? If yes, then my friend, you have clicked on the right article. In this article, I am going to talk about something mouth-watering. It’s a kind of sweet that has celebrity status due to its controversial origin. That’s right; it is the beloved rosogolla.
Can you think of another dish that people from different states fight among each other for, claiming that piece of sweet as their own? You probably can’t. This is the scene with our celebrity sweet- “ROSOGOLLA” or “RASAGOLA”. Let us take a look at rosogolla and everything that follows.
Background On Rosogolla
In 2015, a committee of the Odisha Government claimed that this sweet was first made in Odisha as an offering to the God at Puri Jagannath Temple. But in 2016 West Bengal government applied for the Geographical Indications tag for Bengal’s variant, “Rosogolla”, saying that both Bengal’s “Rosogolla” and Odisha’s “Rasagola” are entirely different from each other in taste, texture, colour, and method of making. For this application, Bengal got the GI status tag for its “Rosogolla” in 2017.
Similarly, the Odisha government also applied for the GI status tag for Odisha “Rasagola” in 2018 and received it on 29th July 2019.
In this article, I will talk about Bengal’s “Rosogolla” only. Bengal got its “rosogolla” in 1868 through Nobin Chandra Das’s hand relative to the great Bhola Moira of Bengal.
Nobin Chandra Das, commonly known as Nobin Moira, started his sweet shop in 1866 in Bagbazar. He wanted to create something unique in terms of sweets.
After lots of experiments, he finally made something wholly new to the world of sweets; he made a great invention in the history of the Bengal Renaissance, which began in the second half of the 19th century.
Even today, if you googled about the favourite things in Kolkata, you’ll find K.C. Das’s “rosogolla” among them. He is Nobin Chandra Das’s successor.
Enough of talking about the history and origin of “rosogolla”. I know that only knowing the past will not give your tastebuds an ethereal feeling.
For that, you have to taste it, and for tasting, either you have to buy it or make it. If you are someone who likes to cook, then here is the recipe for you.
The Recipe
To make “rosogolla”, you need to have-
- Whole fat milk – 1kg
- Lemon – 2 pieces
- Sugar – ½ kg
- Milk Powder – 50g
- Green Cardamom – 5 pieces
- Edible soda – 5g
- Water – 200g
Making process
I’ll give you the recipe uniquely. Some days ago, I saw my father making “rosogolla” for me, and I will tell you the exact recipe he used.
My father loves to eat and make people eat his dishes. Though previously he has made several sweet dishes, he made “rosogolla” for the first time. The first thing he did was making the chenna for the sweet.
To make the chenna, he used full-fat milk. He set the milk to boiling in the oven and then gradually added the lemon juice to the milk. After the chenna was made from the milk, he separated the chenna with the help of cotton cloth. He made the chenna completely waterless.
Then he waited for an hour before kneading the chenna with his hand. While kneading, he added the power milk and made soft dough out of it. Out of the soft dough, he made small round balls. By the way, I helped him make those cute little dough balls too!
On the one hand, we were making the round balls, and on the other, he set up a pan in the oven with water in it, then added sugar in it and heated it in high flame. When the sugar syrup started to boil, he put the round balls in it and heated it for 30 minutes.
The way those round balls of channa became fluffy was indeed a treat to the eyes. And with that, my father made the perfect “rosogolla” on the very first try.
I will never forget the moment when for the first time, I put the hot, fluffy, soft, and spongy homemade rosogolla in my mouth, and it disappeared like magic within seconds, giving my tastebuds a heavenly feeling.
Conclusion
So that is the history and recipe of the ever famous “rosogolla”. Let me correct one thing for you when you enjoy those soft, fluffy, round, and white balls filled with the sugar syrup; keep in mind that it’s “rosogolla”, not “rasgulla”.
