Jalebi!

Your halvai's best kept secret: jalebis are frickin' EASY to make. No kidding. Do you have 30 minutes? No? OK, how about 20? That's all it takes to make hot, crunchy jalebis - perfectly sweet and tangy.

Disclaimer: I am not a jalebi professional. The shape of my jalebi is quite extraordinary.

Here's what you will need.

EQUIPMENT:
1. A bowl to mix the dough in
2. A wooden spoon to mix with
3. A kadai/wok to deep-fry
4. A slotted spoon to drain what you fry
5. An easy-squeeze bottle with a small nozzle, like a ketchup bottle or a honey bottle:

INGREDIENTS:
(For the jalebi)
1. 1 cup plain flour
2. 2 tbsp besan (chick-pea flour)
3. 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
4. 3 tbsp lemon juice
5. Oil for deep frying

(For the sugar syrup)
1. 2 cups water
2. 2 cups sugar
3. 2 tsp rose water OR 1 tsp cardamom seeds

METHOD:

1. Mix the flours and yeast in a bowl
2. Add enough water to make a thick, yet pourable paste.
3. Leave this aside for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, you'll want to start heating the oil...
5. ...And making the sugar syrup. Just mix the sugar, water and cardamom seeds/rose water and boil.
6. Mix the lemon juice into your batter and pour batter into squeezy bottle.
7. Squeeze the batter out into the oil in interesting shapes. (Incidentally, this is when you'll be able to tell if the batter is too thick or thin. If it's thick, it won't squeeze out smoothly, and if it's thin there's going to be big blobs everywhere. You can fix your problems by pouring the batter back into your bowl and adding more water or flour as required. Caution: little water goes a long way.)



8. Fry the jalebi till it's golden brown, then drain and drop directly into the sugar syrup.
9. Let the jalebi stay in the sugar syrup for exactly as long as it takes you to pour out the next jalebi into the wok - which is about 10-15 seconds.
10. Remove jalebi from syrup and serve hot or cold.

Bonus tip: your jalebi will be crunchier if the sugar syrup has been cooled to room temp.

Yum yummy yum yum.

Tags:

• misc