Lockdown Cooking | Jalebi

Cooking has now become a part of my daily routine. Not a single day goes without experimenting with the items present in the kitchen. While the flop ones go to my twitter feed, the successful ones end up on my blog 🙂

I have now come up with another dessert, Jalebi, which took about 10 hours and at least four failed attempts to get set, but was worth every minute spent!

What did I use?

• All-purpose flour or Maida – 200 grams
• Bengal gram flour or Besan – 1 Tablespoon
• Curd – 2 Tablespoon
• Water – as required
• Yellow food color – a pinch or 2 drops
• Clarified butter or ghee – 1 Tablespoon
• Baking soda – 1 Teaspoon
• Sugar – 350 grams
• Saffron [ Optional ] – 4 – 5 strands

How did I prepare the batter?

• To prepare the batter, I mixed all-purpose flour, Bengal gram flour, and curd to prepare a thick paste. I ensured that the paste is thick, but not too hard – it should have a thick consistency. Water can be added if required.
• Once mixed, I allowed the batter to rest overnight for about 8 to 10 hours. Resting the batter helps in fermenting and getting a proper taste.
• My batter is ready!

How did I prepare the sugar syrup?

• Preparing the right kind of sugar syrup is extremely important as the wrong kind of syrup can end up ruining the efforts!
• To prepare the syrup, I used a saucepan and added sugar to it. Now, I added about 500 ml of water and allowed the syrup to boil on a medium flame. It is extremely important to keep the syrup a little thick, else the jalebis might not absorb the syrup properly. 
• A small hack to check if your syrup is correct: It should have a one-string consistency.
• Once your syrup starts boiling, add food color or saffron to the syrup and allow it to boil on medium flame.

Finally, How did I make it?

• Once my batter was ready, I mixed yellow food color, warm ghee, and baking soda to the batter and whisked it for about 5 minutes. My batter was fluffy, which means it’s ready!
• My next step was to pour the batter into a tomato ketchup container and deep fry on a medium flame using ghee, something like this

• Once my jalebis are fried, I turned off the flame of the syrup and transferred the jalebis to the saucepan containing syrup and allowed it to soak for about 2 -3 minutes.

• Jalebis are ready!