Jalebi-Crispy Batter Rings In Sugar Syrup
Jalebi
Abha Gupta
This sweet is often eaten in India for breakfast. In Uttar Pradesh (the Northern province), many sweet shops sell freshly made jalebis, cooked while you wait, first thing in the morning. In many families, they are soaked in piping hot milk and served immediately, before they become soggy. Specialist shops fry jalebis in clarified butter or ghee, though this is less common now a days, because of the increasing cost of fresh ghee. Many Indian sweet shops in UK sell jalebis but not freshly made. This recipe comes from my sister Abha who lives in India. She is an excellent vegetarian cook. Makes 15-20. - Mamta
Ingredients
For batter
100 gm. plain flour
30 gm. semolina
15 gm. besan or gram flour
15 gm. full fat yoghurt
8-9 tsp. water, hand warm
2 tbsp. oil
For the syrup
200 gm. sugar
200 ml. water
Saffron (zafran or kesar) a few strands (optional)
For frying
Ghee or fresh cooking oil (do not use oil that has been used for frying anything else before).
Instructions
Measure all ingredients.
Mix yoghurt, flour, gram flour, semolina, saffron strands, oil and enough water to make a batter.
Add saffron and beat again.
Leave it covered overnight in a warm place to ferment a little.
Beat well.
Make sugar syrup of one thread consistency* by boiling sugar and water briskly.
Heat ghee or oil in a deep frying pan. It should be hot but not smoking. To test for the right temperature, drop a small dollop of batter in the oil, it should fizz and swim immediately to the surface.
Place batter in an icing bag with a 3/4 cm. pipping nozzle. You can use a soft plastic bottle with the nozzle cut to about 3/4 cm. width, see picture 4. You can also use a plastic bottle that small restaurants/coffee houses use to serve tomato ketchup and other sauces.
You should practice piping first on a paper by making one or two jalebi rings on it. Now pipe jalebis straight into the hot oil in the shape of rings and figures of eight, going round and round. Start from outer circle and make smaller circles filling the larger outer circle as you go in. There should be no break in any one jalebi circle. Each jalebi is approximately the size of a bangle.
Fry until golden brown and crisp.
Take out and soak in syrup for 2-3 minutes only, otherwise they will get soggy. Take out on a serving dish and serve hot.
Notes
*A drop of syrup put on one of your finger tip and stretched against your thumb should give you 1 wire stretching out. Syrup any thicker than this will solidify quickly.
