Kamolabhog/Orange Cheese balls in sugar syrup

The memory of childhood is really a treasure forever. Although our ancestral home had been in North Kolkata, I passed my childhood in a small town named Kulti. It is an industrial town. The life of the town was the steel company, IISCO. There were no so called restaurants in the town. There were only a few sweet shops (Mistanno Bhandar) and snack corners. The best one in the town was Nilkamal Mistanno Bhandar, in Ranitala (downtown Kulti). And the best from their collection of sweets were Kamalabhog and Lyangcha. My favorite was the Kamolabhog. Whenever we had guests coming over, baba used to bring sweets from that shop. 

Also, in the wedding ceremonies of that time, the desert items in the feast used to be mostly Rajbhog or Kamolabhog or Pantua often. Life was much simpler, there were not many colors but whatever the colors were,  they were really bright and shiny. And the taste of the Kamolabhog I can still feel inside my mouth. 

Here in USA we don't get Kamolabhog at all in any shops. One time I got canned Kamolabhog, but the preservative smell was too strong and the balls were too hard to consume. Then only  I planned to make Kamolabhog at home. 

The recipe to make this delicious sweet is as follows:

Ingredients:

1. 1 Gallon of Milk

2.  200 ml of Orange Juice

3. 1 Lemon

4. 2 teaspoons of orange extract

5. A few pinch of Yellow Food color

6. 1/2 Cup of Khoya

7. 1.5 tablespoon of warm milk

8. Few strands of Safforn

9. 2 teaspoons of semolina or suji

10. 3.5 cups of sugar

11. 8 cups of water

12. 8-10 Green Cardamom

Steps:

1. Take a gallon of milk in a big pot and start boiling the milk. You need to stir it so that the milk does not stick to bottom of the pan.

2. When you see the bubbles are appearing on the surface of the milk, add the orange juice to the milk slowly. You will see the milk starts curdling and the whey starts forming. I needed to add juice of a lime mixed with little water to curdle it nicely. With just orange juice the milk did not completely curdle. Once you see the milk solid is completely separated from the greenish water, your chhana or cheese is ready.

3 Now take a colander and place it in the sink. Put the cheesecloth on the colander and strain the chhana  on the cloth. Turn the tap on and wash the chhana with cold water so that it does not get hard and also the lime water is washed off completely. But be careful!! Do not wash it too much, otherwise, it will be hard.

4. Now tie all the opposite ends of the cheesecloth and hang it on the tap for 40-45 minutes. This will let all the water straining out from the cheese.

5. In between you can prepare the khoya. Grate the khoya bar. I used Nanak Khoya and 1/2 cup of khoya was sufficient to make 28 Kamalabhog.

6. Warm the milk and soak the Safforn strands to the milk. Knead the Khoya with safforn soaked warm milk mixture.  Make 28 small balls from that mixture.

7. Take the chhana now on a plate and mix orange extract and yellow food color and mix it thoroughly. Also add the suji to it and also 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Now knead it nicely with your palm on the plate or on the clean counter-top for 5 minute. Do not rub for longer time, the chhana will get hard. 

8. Now make balls from that chhana. I could make 28 equal size balls. You can make more depending on the size of Kamolabhog you want to make. Ensure that there should not be absolutely any cracks on the ball otherwise your balls will break in the sugar syrup while boiling.

9. Now put the small khoya balls inside the cheesballs and make them round again. It is a tedious step. If you want, you may skip adding the khoya balls inside the komolabhog.

10. Now make the sugar syrup. Take a big vessel "(so that the cheese balls get enough space to puff) and add 8 cups of water into it.  Add 8-10 green cardamoms into the water. Let it boil. Add 3.5 cups of sugar to it. When the sugar dissolves to the water, reduce the heat. 

11. Now gently add the cheese balls to the sugar syrup and let it boil. In between check whether the sugar syrup is drying. You may need to add water in little quantity to the pot time to time. I added 2 time 1/4th cups of water.

12. After 30 minutes with a spoon gently roll the balls so that the other side faces up. Cook it 10/15 more minutes and you are all set. 

13. Cool it. Put them in the refrigerator and serve it.!!! 

Enjoy!!!!