Rajbhog

Rajbhog

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by Deeksha Pathak

To celebrate the festival of Basant Panchmi this year, I decided to prepare Rajbhog. The below pictures of Rajbhog are when the first time I had successfully prepared this sweet dish. I was so thrilled with the outcome that I had clicked and sent these pictures  to my mother!

Rajbhog

Rajbhog

Basant Panchami festival in India signifies the arrival of spring season. Goddess Saraswati is worshipped and everyone wears yellow coloured clothes. One dish is cooked which has yellow colour – either savory or sweet. In North India this time mustard crops are in full bloom and fields are full of yellow mustard flowers.

To carry on this yellow coloured sweet dish preparation, Rajbhog was perfect .It is prepared with chenna/ paneer (curdled milk). It is very close to Rasgulla (Rasgulla) , and the only difference between these two is that Rajbhog is slightly stuffed with dry nuts and saffron is added for colour and fragrance.

Rajbhog

Ingredients:

1 litre       full fat milk
I lemon juice (can be replaced with 1 tbsp vinegar)
2 cups       sugar (granulated)
4 1/2 cup    water
1 tbsp  finely chopped mixed dry nuts and cardamom powder
a few strands of saffron
Seeds of 2-3 whole cardamom
Keep ready one tray of ice cubes

Method:

In one tbsp of hot milk, add some strands of saffron in a small bowl and keep it aside. Cut dry nuts finely and keep them along with cardamom powder in a bowl. In a separate bowl, keep whole cardamom seeds.

preparation for Rajbhog

Take one big bowl and on top of it keep strainer covered with muslin cloth to sieve curdled milk. The whey water can be used to knead dough or use it for curries.

Squeeze out lemon juice, sieve it, add equal amount of water to the lemon juice and keep it separately.

Boil milk, switch off the heat and pour lemon juice or vinegar. Milk will curdle as it is very hot.

boil milk

curdle milk

When whole milk is curdled nicely, pour immediately in the strainer which is covered with muslin cloth and add ice cubes.

add ice cubes

Let the chenna remain in muslin cloth and wash it nicely in the running water so that no taste of lemon or vinegar remains. Squeeze out all water from chenna.

Now hang this chenna in muslin cloth for 15 min, so that the rest of the the water drains out. If you feel that chenna still has moisture after hanging also, squeeze it with your hands along with muslin cloth.

Now chenna is completely dry. Sieve saffron milk (keep saffron strands safe) and add this into chenna to add moisture and beautiful yellow colour. Mix it properly so that whole chenna gets absorbed in yellow colour.

Rub it nicely with your palms so that all the grains of chenna become soft and it can be collected  like a dough.

Prepare equal sized small balls from this whole chenna dough. There should not be any cracks in the balls. If you are getting cracks, rub the chenna ball between your palms and again make the ball.

Press the chenna ball with your finger and add little amount of finely cut mixture of dry nuts mixed with cardamom powder and again roll the ball neatly to seal the stuffing.

Now in a big size vessel or pressure cooker add water, sugar, saffron strands and cardamom seeds. Switch on the heat on high flame.

Keep stirring water till whole sugar is dissolved. The moment water starts boiling, add all chenna balls into this syrup and cover the vessel and keep some weight on the cover (if using cooker, let it boil till first whistle and then sim the flame for next 5-7 min.) Gas flame should be high for the first five minutes – then reduce it to sim for the next 5-7 minutes.

Switch off heat and let the steam cool down completely and then open the lid of the cooker. You will see that small balls of chenna have doubled in size.

Shift them to another bowl along with sugar syrup. Let them cool down completely. Once cooled, keep them in the fridge for 3 to 4 hours.

Serve chilled and garnish with dry nuts.

Spongy bright yellow coloured Rajbhog is ready to relish!!

Rajbhog

Rajbhog

 

Published by

Deeksha Pathak

I like reading, watching movies, listening to music, doing some art and craft, cooking, baking and exploring new ideas. Baking is my new passion!!

72 thoughts on “Rajbhog”

    1. You are always welcome Kamal😘❤
      It is just for the day of Basant Panchmi. It is believed that yellow colour is the favourite colour of Goddess Saraswati.
      Will tell you something interesting here…
      Mustard flowers attract a lot of flying yellow insects. So they are a lot in the air this time. We usually had to change our yellow clothes after pooja, as those insects were troublesome 😀😃

    1. Thank you so much Stella❤
      Spicy version of chenna/ paneer is all varieties of paneer dishes with gravy loaded with butter, milk cream and garam masala. Serve with naan and give yourself a wonderful treat😋😋😋

      2. Oh yes, that would be an excellent idea!!
        Boil them in vegetable broth or any of your favourite broth and then serve with sauce. Can add little bit of corn flour in chenna to make them firm or can omit it. But overall I must say, a very nice idea👏👏👏

  12. I enjoyed this treat while I was visiting India in 2019. It was very delicious. Now I know what it is called and how it is made. Thank you for sharing the recipe and your passion for baking. ~ Cindie

    1. Cindie, thank you very much for visiting the blog and going through the post ☺
      You had visited India at the right time! Now for the last two years it is difficult to come out of the house also. I hope you had enjoyed your trip here with different types of food. Were you able to handle spices?

      2. That’s wonderful!! Liking different types of food is very difficult usually for people, but if someone has that quality, it is easy to adopt a new place.
        Cindie, nice meeting you. Have a wonderful week ahead!

  16. Hi Deeksha. How are you? It’s really nice to read your blog and see the delicious food you’ve cooked. How is your baked goods business doing? Your sweets look divine. 😋

  18. For years, Rajbog was considered a better alternative to rasgulla. Lately, a lot of new & fancy “creations” have replaced this Mithai.

    1. Oh yes, a few days back only while buying gazak I saw rajbhog, rasgulla and chamcham in so many different colours, shapes and even many flavors!!
      Rasmalai cake is the most favorite fusion cake in India.

    1. Priti, you are most welcome😊
      Those days saffron was for kings only. Common people like us wouldn’t be able to afford 😄Even today many just add yellow colour. A few strands are damn costly.

  23. DEEKSHA!!! HELLO!!! I’ve missed You! Your new photo is so lovely and this dish is CRAZY BEAUTIFUL!!! What a wonderful dish for a wonderful celebration! You just gifted so much joy! Thank You! Sending huge hugs Your way! 🤗💖😊

  25. Oh wow Deeksha! This sweet treat looks amazing! ❤️ You really have a gift for cooking and baking. These turned out beautifully. I love the ingredients and think it would be fun to give these a try — although I’m not so sure mine would come out anywhere near as nicely as yours!

    As always I send you and your family love. I hope each of you are well. God bless, my friend!

    1. Hi Holly, many many thanks for your sweet words of appreciation my dear friend❤. I am sure yours will also turn out beautiful and delicious.
      I hope you are doing well. Have a great week ahead 😊☺

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