Recipe - Crispy Jalebi To Enjoy Rains

Some sweets bring back so many memories. Jalebi is really right up there as far as my food memories are concerned. When I was little, our everyday Sunday breakfast was fixed – jalebi with milk or rabri. My dad loves thin and crispy jalebi and there was this little sweet shop in the little town that we lived then and every Sunday dad would go there at 8 am in the morning and bring back hot and delicious jalebis for all of us. Those were the best jalebis I have ever had.

Jalebi still remains a very popular breakfast dish in North India. It’s funny because jalebi is a sweet but people so often eat it as a special breakfast on weekends or on festivals. I mean of course it’s a sweet so it’s eaten as a dessert but a lot of time people also relish it for breakfast. Also jalebi reminds of this advertisement which used to air back in the 90s in India (and I am sure every kid of that era must have seen this advertisement for a vegetable oil company) where a little kids gets angry with his parents and leaves the house but he returns back once his grandfather mentions that his mom made jalebi for breakfast! See the effect of homemade jalebi! It’s an adorable ad by the way!

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour also known as maida
1 tablespoon chickpea flour also known as besan
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of baking soda
3 tablespoons yogurt
orange food color optional
water as needed - around 1/2 cup + 2-3 tablespoons
oil or ghee to fry jalebi
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
few saffron strands
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Method

* In a large bowl mix together flour (maida), chickpea flour (besan), baking powder and baking soda.

* Add yogurt, cardamom powder and mix

* Add food color (if using) and water to form a flowing consistency batter.

* The batter should not be too thick or thin. You may need up to 3/4 water depending on quality of maida and besan.

* Cover the batter and let the batter sit for 10-12 hours to ferment. Mine took 24 hours because I live in a cold place. You see small bubbles on top of the batter once it has fermented.
In morning, whisk the batter a little. You may need to add little water [around 1 tablespoon] if batter looks too thick at this point.

* Meanwhile add sugar to a pan. Add water and mix with sugar and let it all come to a boil.

* Once it comes to a boil, add cardamom powder, saffron strand and lemon juice.

* Let it simmer till syrup becomes sticky and form a one string consistency.

* Basically place a drop of syrup in between your thumb and index finger and then when you move fingers away from each other, it should form a single thread.

* If you can't get consistency, just make it sticky. Keep the syrup warm while you make the jalebis.

* Transfer jalebi batter into a squeeze bottle. The one I used had a very small tip hence the thin jalebis.

* Meanwhile heat oil or ghee in a pan or kadai. I used a combination of the two. Keep heat to medium-low.

* Squeeze batter in hot oil, making spiral motion from inside to outside. Remember to keep at low heat else you won't be able to form the shape.

* If the batter is dispersing in the oil, maybe it's too thin and you need to add some flour to it. Once you have made the spiral shape with the batter, increase the heat to medium-high.

* Fry till crisp from both sides. Remove from oil and immediately dip in warm sugar syrup, few seconds on each side is good enough.

* Remove jalebis from the sugar syrup and transfer to a serving plate. Enjoy homemade jalebi with milk or rabri. You may garnish with some nuts on top.