Jalebi

 Jalebi 

To be fair my first brush with jaelbis was quite some time back when I was in college. Well I made it once but then I do not remember how I had made it the first time . My second brush with them was on last year's  Diwali. See, the problem is when you follow recipes without understanding they wouldn't turn out that well. So basically I decided to keep some recipes as the base and work on it. Thankfully a brush with these juicy buddies last year had made me jot down a few things.

Sometimes I make it without the Rabri
This was made when my mother-in-law came over 

I am  completely a person of extremes so on a regular day I would rather have steamed vegetables and steamed meat with a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil but jalebis , ah you know already they are high in calories, completely tasty and so why not go all the way and make them as good as possible and in my book Indian food especially food cooked the Northern Indian style is best done in pure ghee, thick curd etc etc

Now, it being holi and a 'holi-day' (this was concocted by my uncle) I had initially decided to simply not try anything since I am swamped with work but then last night at 10 a.m. I felt it would be wrong not to celebrate even a little bit on Holi.

So this is what I did, I created my jalebi batter, noted the things I needed to buy and then went off to sleep a happy girl.

What you need :-

Serves 5 to 6

1 cup + 6 tbsp (these cups hold 210ml liquid) all purpose flour /maida
2 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp semolina/sooji
Approximately 400gm very thick curd
1 fat pinch of bicarbonate of soda . It is popularly known as 'khnewale soda' in some places
1 pinch of yeast
1 pinch of saffron soaked in water for 10 minutes

For the syrup

3 cups of sugar
3 cups of water
1 fat pinch of saffron
4 to 5 small cardamom

For the Kesari Rabri :-

1 litre full cream cow milk
1 handful sugar but you can increase the amount of sugar as per your palate and taste
A handful of blanced pistachios
Pinch of Saffron soaked in water

150gm ghee
100ml oil

Cloth to whirl the jalebi batter in oil

The batter post fermentation and addition of saffron 

Create a batter with the all purpose flour, semolina, yeast, bi-carbonate of soda and the curd. Now remember that you have to use your instinct and so pour the curd bit by bit to create a batter of dropping consistency like that of a cake batter. I ask everyone to use their instincts because the initial recipe I followed had called for 1.5 cups of flour and 1 cup of curd and that yielded a dry dough and that is when I increased my amount of curd and I later thought that perhaps that other recipe had used churned thinned curd. I used thick curd. Anyways as long as you have a batter with a heavy dropping consistency you are good to go. Cover with a cloth and let it ferment overnight.

The next morning start with the making of rabri by first soaking the saffron in water and  bringing the milk to a boil with 1 tbsp ghee. Now this addition of ghee ensures you have the smoothest of rabri. Then simmer for 1.5 hours to 1 hour 45 minutes till you have a beige thick mass with tiny bubbles. Add the saffron mixture halfway into cooking say after  30 minutes of simmering. This simmering low heat though a long process makes the most amazing rabri. In the end you have an yellowish thick mass of rabri and now simply add the blanched chopped pistachios.

By the time the rabri is done make the syrup by bringing everything to a boil except the saffron and then simmering on medium flame for 15 minutes. Add the saffron mixture after 5 minutes of simmering

Take out the batter add the saffron and mix well and then start with the jalebi making

Now heat the ghee and oil together and while making jalebis keep temperature at low at all times  make a small hole in the middle of you cloth and simply whirl circular patterns in the oil. Use a slotted flat spoon to turn the jalebis once you see the golden brown colour. Remember that the only key to golden brown jalebis are low heat and a constant eye on the frying jalebis. Turn and fry golden brown on each side and then soak in the sugar syrup for 3 minutes to 5 minutes and take out and leave it for a minute or 2 (this helps in making them crispy)  before serving with rabri.

Enjoy these crispy , sugary amazing delights with or without rabri .