Hot Jalebi for the festival of colours!

Happy Holi everyone !

Any festival is incomplete if you are not served with a sweet. On Holi, everyone looks forward to playing with colours. But at the same time, having sweets is yet another activity that has its own priority and can't be replaced. So how about having some Hot Jalebi's this year to make Holi special.

Hot Jalebi had been an obsession for myself and my brother since we were kids. I guess all kids like it- remember the Dhara ad, where the kid gave up the idea of leaving home just to have jalebi :). We looked forward for a holiday to enjoy having it. We would get it from a Halwai's shop on Sundays, the only day we didn't have to go to school. How much ever we got it, it wouldn't stay long.





Trust me, these are really easy to make at home. It seemed magical to see just a little batter resulting in a heap of jalebis. Given the fact that these are delicious when had hot, you might need to adjust the amount of ingredients to make it only sufficient enough for the people present at home. The below recipe serves four people in surplus.

Ingredients

For the Jalebi

1. 1 cup of all purpose flour
2. 1/8 tsp of cardamom powder
3. 1 tsp of rapid rise yeast
4. 2 tsp of corn starch
5. 1 tsp of oil
6. 1 tbsp of yogurt
7. Warm water (as required)
8. Oil for deep frying

For the syrup

1. 11/4 cup of sugar
2. 1 cup of water
3. A pinch of saffron
4. 1 tsp of Lemon juice
5. 1/4 tsp of cardamom powder

Method

• In a bowl, mix the all purpose flour, cardamom  powder, rapid rise yeast and corn starch. 
• Add yogurt, oil and just enough water to form a smooth and thick paste without any lumps.
• Take a bigger vessel and add warm water in it. Place the mixing bowl inside this bowl, such that the warm water surrounds the mixing bowl. 
• Place it in a warm place and let the mixture to ferment.
• Meanwhile, for the syrup, add sugar, saffron and water in a thick bottom pan. Cook for about 15 minutes.
• Simmer the heat and add lemon juice and cardamom powder to it.
• The batter would have fermented by now. Give it a mix with a spoon.
• Pour the batter into an empty ketchup/sauce bottle or any other bottle that would be easy to squeeze out the batter through the spout.
• Heat the oil for frying up the Jalebi.
• Squeeze out the batter in circular motions to form Jalebi. Flip it once the bottom side has turned golden brown.
• Once done, shake out excess oil and drop the Jalebi in the syrup. Flip it for the syrup to get coated on the other side. 
• Remove it on to a plate. Serve hot.

Tips

1. While squeezing out the batter, make sure that the ends of Jalebi stays together. Else, they would open up and will not get the shape of a Jalebi.
2. Hot Jalebi's when put in the syrup absorbs fast and hence it is necessary for the syrup to be hot. Also you will need to flip the Jalebi's, while in the syrup, quickly. Else, they might absorb a lot of syrup and may loose its crispiness.
3. Since the syrup should be kept hot, simmer the heat and only switch it off if you find that the syrup is getting thicker.

Recipe Courtesy : Show me the curry