Friday, March 14, 2008

Jalebis





The other day I was chatting with the ubiquitous 'T' who helps me around the house and I told her about some apple jalebis that I had recently eaten. She said "Apple jalebis!?" ... "so dosa ittu inda nu mada bahud alla?" ... which is Kannada for, "if someone can make jalebis out of apples, then I can definitely make them using dosa batter!". And she did. I kid you not. I came home from work one evening and found them all ready to be soaked into sugar syrup sitting on the kitchen counter. She's obviously made these before, but I was suitably impressed. I made a second batch the other day under her guidance and they were pretty good.

Most of us usually have some extra dosa batter in the fridge on any given day, but for those who need to make from scratch, here goes:

For the batter:
1. Three cups of any branded boiled rice.
2. One cup basmati rice.
3. One cup white urad dal.
4. Forgot to mention this - a pinch of orange food colour.

If idli rice is available in your local grocery, you could substitute Ing 1&2 for 4 cups of that instead.

For the sugar syrup:
1. One cup sugar.
2. One cup water.
3. One tsp crushed cardamom.

Boil the sugar and water together in a pan till you get a "one string" consistency. i.e. when the mixture starts to become syrupy, test a small amount between your thumb and fore finger - if the syrup binds enough to form a "string", take the pan of the heat. Add the cardamom and keep aside.

Method:
1. Soak the rice and lentils separately in water for a few hours.
2. Drain the water from the dal and grind using as little liquid as possible till fluffy. Keep aside.
3. Now grind the rice using a little water till fine but not too paste like.
4. Mix the two together well and keep in a warm place for a few hours (preferably overnight) for the batter to "rise". Add the orange food colour to the amount of batter being used for the jalebis.
5. Cut a tiny hole in a clean plastic sheet or piping bag, spoon in some of the batter and deep fry in hot oil in the shape of concentric circles.
6. Drain on kitchen towels and soak in the syrup for 15 minutes.
7. These can be served warm or cold with a glass of milk.

9 comments:

Vidya said...

send me some??
I've been a good girl and blogged a bit :)

amna said...

jalebis with dosa batter? nice!!

i might be coming over to Arab land very soon. tying the knot and all that. since you have been there a while, i might pester you for suggestions on nice areas to live, safe companies to work with and such! please don't say no, i will i will i will (pester, that is :D)

aMus said...

hey reallly!!! dosa hittu? must must try...i always have some lftover batter at home....

Bimla Kalauny said...

V: We'll meet in Bangalore and cook up a storm. Wonder if you remember that day at Kalpa's and Full Monty? :-D .

Nags: Congratulations! Please do get in touch with me for anything you need - do mail me on mkalauny@gmail.com and give me your numbers.

TA: Yes, dosa batter and they were really good - just like store bought jalebis. Slurrp :)

Prats said...

This I can never believe...having die hard fans of jalebis at home, this is like god send...wow! Madhu you're a jem ..

Will try this out first thing after the eggjams are through....

Vidya said...

oh yes, that was some girls' day out.
btw, whenever i need to use orange or yellow colouring, i add a generous pinch of turmeric. got this thing against t synthetic food coloring, which I use only under duress

Sairekha said...

Wow! I am impressed by the mere possibility.. and I am gaping at the screen like a gold fish!:) Sorry, havent been around in a bit:)

Btw, you're tagged!:)

EC said...

Thats a wonderful idea indeed...

Anamika:The Sugarcrafter said...

Hi madhumita
i love your enthusiasm for experiments ...apple jalebi and dosa batter jalebi...hey thats quite interesting and looks delicious.thanks for sharing !