Roshogolla or Khirmohan

Roundels of white spongy sweetness that melts in your mouth…

No not roshogolla…its Khirmohan the elder brother to our celebrated roshogolla, that originally was born in Orissa.

Yes centuries before Nobin Chandra Das, of Kolkata made his own roshogolla, the neighboring state of Orissa had already mastered the art. Probably during the period where Bengal drew heavily from the culinary delights of Orissa and in many rich Bengali households in Kolkata employed “Ude Thakurs” Oriya Brahmins as cooks; came the secrets of roshogolla. Yes Nobin babu popularized the misti had gave hands and feet to it.

Around 1868, he modified the recipe of the roshogolla as he wanted to extend the life of the sweet which was originally highly perishable. As a result of his modification, the roshogolla became a lot spongier than it originally was but it remained non-perishable for quite some time, which made it easier for Nobin Das to market it as a product at his small Bagh Bazar shop. Subsequently, K.C. Das who was Nobin Das's son began to can the rasgulla which resulted in the widespread availability of the sweets. Another confectioner from Phulia also finds mention when we are talking about the origin of Roshogolla.

In Orissa, Roshogolla was served since centuries. In fact, it is an age-old custom inside the temple to offer roshogolla to Lakshmi in order to appease her wrath for being ignored as the siblings had gone out on a trip, on the last day of the eleven day long Rath yatra(chariot festival). Historians have referred to the origin of the 600 year old rosogolla to the Puri Temple ritual. So Roshogolla is as old as the Rath Yatra in Puri.

There are various versions of the sweet available across.

In Orissa, the Bikali Kar roshogolla is particularly famous and available all over the state. The other variant is the Pahala variant available in Pahala village between the cities of Cuttack and Bhuvaneshwar.

The roshogollas in Pahala are a softer version, more creamish in colour than white, and not as spongy as the Bengali ones. The Pahala sweet sellers say that one reason why the Bengali roshogolla is tougher than theirs, is that the Bengalis want a longer shelf-life for their product. They add arrowroot powder to their roshogollas. In Pahala, they mix shuji with chena while making of roshogolla. To this is added cardamom for flavor. A dough is made, it is rolled into little balls, and dropped into boiling sugar syrup. The sooji is used to hold the chenna together in the sugar syrup.

There are other versions available like the ones in Jagery available both in Kolkata and Orissa. Also with time several other forms like saffron, black current, strawberries came into being.

With time Roshogolla acquired popularity in Bengal. Today in every nook and corner of Kolkata you will find a sweet shop. And suggesting the best amongst them is like suggesting the best momo in Tibet.

However KC Das, Nakur Nandy, Bhim Nag, Balaram Mullick, Girish, Suresh at Bhawanipur, Maity at Ballygunge and many many more serve delicious Roshogollas keeping the sweet tooth of the Bengalis intact.

So today I share a Chocolate Roshogolla recipe

Roshogolla is essentially a simple five step procedure.

1.        Make the chana, using whole milk and lemon.

a.       Bring 1 lts, full fat milk to boil string constantly.

b.       Add 2-3 spoon full of lemon. Wait till the chana separates from water.

c.       Strain it through a muslin cloth.

d.       Put cold water over the strainer and wash away the lemon from chana

e.        Drain all water

f.        Keep the chana aside

2.       Kneed the chana with cornflour/arraroot

a.       Kneed the chana for about 2 minutes roughly to make it greasy

b.       Add 2 spoon full of arraroot

c.       You can also use 2 spoon full of suji – however if you add suji it will not be fluffy.

d.    Add 2 tsp of cocoa powder and 2 tsp of chocolate syrup - for chocolate roshogolla

d.       Kneed with all ingredients till its greasy and make the dough

3.       Form small balls with the dough. Mak esure there are no cracks in the roundels.

4.       Make sugar syrup. Boiling water and sugar

5.       Boil chana balls in sugar syrup.

So u have it ready…try it…