Desserts: Ras Malai

Preparation Time: 0 mins
Cooking time: 1hr
Refrigeration time: 5-6 hrs
Serves: 6 (150 ml serving)

Ingredients:
2 lt of full cream milk.
1 tea spoon vanilla custard powder
2 tablespoons sugar
6 Rasgullas.
2 pods of green cardamom.
Handful of almonds & pistachios

Method:

1. Take a thick bottomed pan and heat milk in it. Heat it on slow until it has reduced to half the original quantity. Keep stiring once in a while, but do so very slowly keeping in mind to not to break the creamy formations at the top. This hardened milk formation will add texture to the ras malai later.
2. When the milk is done, add custard powder. Mix the custurd in 100 ml of cold milk and then add to the boiling milk. All this while, keep stiring to avoid formation of lumps.
3. Add sugar.
4. Take the rasgullas and squeeze them gently to remove all the sugar syrup out of them. Cut the rasgullas in half. Doing this will ensure that rasgullas take the milk preparation as there ras and this will add to the flavour of ras malai.
5. Add the rasgullas and cardamom powder to the milk and boil on high flame for 1-2 mins.
6. Allow it to cool a little bit and then carefully pour the prepration in a serving bowl.
7. Decorate with thin flats of almonds and pistachios.
8. Refrigerate for 5-6 hrs. Serve chilled.

Note: My personal observation is that ras malai tastes better if it has been refrigerated overnight.

Weekend Trip: Pondicherry Trip

Distance: About 320kms
Direction: Towards Chennai.
Best time to visit: After monsoon (August to March)
What to see: Beaches, French Colony, Arubindo Ashram, Aruville, Pichavaram Forests.
You need atleast 3 days to do this trip.
Start from here on Day 0, in the late afternoon. Do a night halt at Tiruvanamalai. This should take about 3.5 hrs to do. Visit the tiruvanamalai temple in the morning and reach Pondi by 10am on Day 1. Tiruvanamalai to Pondi is about 3 hrs.
Visit Arubindo ashram, Aruville and french colony until evening 5. Then go on to the Promenade beach for the evening.
Day 2 morning go to Paradise beach. Start early to avoid day time traffic. Afternoons and evenings spend in shopping or roaming around in the french colony area.
Day 3: Start really early morning. Pack breakfast and go to Pichavaram forests. It is about 60 kms from Pondi towards chitambram. Take a boat ride to the beach and the mangrove forest.

Return via Pondi or Chitambram. If you take chitambram route and if time permits, do visit some temples there as well.