Rasamali Saga

The day we moved into this new house we went shopping for a lot of general stores as now I have to rebuild my larder. The Indian shop in Wentworthville is apparently the largest in Sydney and so of e went to have a potter there. This shop reminded me of Daddo’s which used to be on Ealing High Street.

There is a counter for take away and sweets. There are so many ready cooked meals, spices, sauces, snacks and from a lot of companies I had heard of from my friends in India but never seen. My favourite Bhujiya form Haldiram’s is in a huge packet – none of this diddy packs that finish before I am satisfied. One guy peeped in my trolley and said gosh where did you get that large pack from? And when I pointed to the lowest shelf he dived into his trolley and pulled out the small pack and stuffed it back in the top shelf in exchange for the large one. Oh I can carry on about the fun I have in this shop but the story is about rasamali.

I found a tin of rasamali and thought I love it and so maybe good to have a tin of it to have one evening. These days I tend to have some fruit after dinner but can always make an exception for rasamali. Then on Saturday I had soaked red beans for dinner on Sunday. As I was soaking them I thought now it would be a lovely end to the dinner to have rasamali after rajamah and rice. So put the tin in the fridge as I love the rasamali to be cold.

Come Sunday I made the red beans and rice. There was some cabbage left so made a stir fry with a pinch of salt and turmeric. The meal was delicious and my mouth was watering in anticipation of the chilled rasamali to come. The tin was so cold and damp that it was hard to get a grip to open the plastic top. The can was to be opened with a ring pull tab and so that was not hard. But ohhh what is this? There is a sugar syrup in which the rasamali are floating. Now there is plenty of rasamali to satisfy my greed but where was the milk in which it normally sits? Quickly tried to hold the can up, put my glasses to read what the instructions were. Damn damn damn have to make the milky sauce! Had to put the lid back on and return the tin to the fridge.

Since we had already bought our weekly groceries on Saturday and there was no full cream milk or tinned milk in my larder, I decided to walk to the local shops to get some this afternoon. First of all the walk did me good especially as the sun was shining and nice warm weather. The price of the milk was high to put it mildly. But I got a litre of fresh full cream milk as I could not find any condensed milk. Walked back and chatted with a man washing his car. He offered to wash my car for me! Then I put the milk to simmer and reduce. I actually stood by and frequently stirred it. Had a rummage in the cupboard and found some almonds and cashew nuts so chopped them up and added to the milk. Now the milk is reduced and the nuts slightly softened. Have set it aside to cool. After it cools the instructions on the tins says to drain the rasamali form the sugar syrup and put some of that syrup into the milk to sweeten it. Then soak the rasamali in the milk and put it in the fridge.

Now the rasamali is on the menu for tomorrow’s dessert. All those wishing to have come can pop over and maybe I shall provide dinner too… Happy rasamali eating!!!