Gulab Jamuns- a 'never will we get over this' - indulgence

I had been keeping this post pending for long now. Milestone posts do not come by everyday, do they? This post, as my dashboard shows is the 200 th! Had someone suggested sharing my culinary experiments few years ago, I may have thought it was a laugh. Cooking something and writing up a post on that would have never crossed my mind. And today, here I am sharing 200 odd recipes!

I have the habit of scribbling my notes on the very page of a recipe. Points like the date that I tried it, what were my adjustments to the same and also who along with me enjoyed that and how well it was received can be found there.

Last year around festival season we were challenged to make gulab jamuns from scratch. We were given recipes from three friendly bloggers who shared them. I got a bit heady and tried two recipes then and the third on a later occasion.

Soon after, I wanted to check the recipe given in one of my favourite books. I discovered that I had made a fusion recipe using the one in the book and another in my mother's note book years ago, for deepavali. My notes were all over the already browning brittle sheet of the book.

I resolved to try that on the next possible occasion. I did and just did not find time and inclination enough to post the same.

Now with this nice looking number and Aparna asking for bite size sweets on Sugar High Fridays, I gave up procrastination and am ready to share the recipe here.

The recipe has worked well for me and I hope it does in your kitchens too.

I made the khoya/ khova from scratch as I usually do.

Ingredients:

Khoya/ khova (made by boiling down 2 litres) approximately 500 grams

Maida/ All purpose flour 90 grams

Cooking soda 2 pinches (size that matches the head of match sticks)

Ghee 2 teaspoons

Yoghurt/ Curd 2 table spoons

Oil/ Ghee for deep frying

For the syrup:

Sugar 800 grams

Water equal volume of sugar

Few strands of saffron

Few drops of rose flavoured essence, if desired; or powdered cardamom.

Method:

Rub the ghee into the maida well.

Add the cooking soda to the yoghurt and whisk until frothing.

Mix the maida, yoghurt and the khoya. Knead well until well blended and a smooth dough is formed.

Pinch out small portions of the dough and roll into small balls. If the balls develop cracks, add some warm milk and proceed. I rolled them in elliptical shape.

Using a tooth pick make tiny perforations on the surface of the balls, ensuring that holes are not formed.

Heat ghee or oil in a pan. The frying medium should be just hot and not smoking.

Drop few of the rolled jamuns and over a very moderate heat fry them until well cooked.

Remove from ghee/oil and place on absorbent tissues.

Meanwhile, dissolve the sugar in water and place the pan on heat. Allow the solution to come to a boil and continue boiling for 8 - 10 minutes. Drop the saffron in and add the essence if using.

Gently drop the deep fried jamuns in the sugar syrup.

Allow a few hours for the jamuns to soak and absorb the syrup.

The gulab jamuns are ready to be enjoyed.

I enjoy them split in two halves and scooping with some syrup.

As told earlier these are being sent to Aparna to be featured in Bite size sweets.

Generally, most Indian home made sweets are on the sweeter side and can be enjoyed only in small sizes. The gulab jamun is one such and you may be able to have a maximum of two or three at one serving.

Any milk based sweet does not have long shelf life. It holds good with these too. Refrigeration is not my recommendation, though it is possible. They will stay well for three days even at room temperature.

You may enjoy them with vanilla ice cream too.