My husband loves Jalebis/Jilebis (that's what its called in South India). He is such a great fan of its sour and tangy taste mixed with the sweetness of the sugar. I had wanted to try them for a very long time and somehow got the mind to do it today. Lucky for me they came out great. The recipe is as follows -
Ingredients -
- All Purpose flour (maida) - 1/2 cup
- Gram flour (besan) - 1 tsp
- Dry yeast - 1/2 tsp
- Oil - 1/2 tsp
- Sugar - 1/2 tsp
- Luke warm water - 1/2 cup (usually requires a little bit less. Use it little by little so that you would know when to stop)
- Oil to fry
- Ketchup bottle/Icing bag
For Sugar syrup -
- Sugar - 1 cup
- Water - 1/2 cup
- Cardamom - 1 (or a pinch of cardamom powder)
- Saffron - a pinch
- Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
- Food Color (Yellow/Orange) - a pinch
Recipe -
- To make the batter, take the yeast in a mixing bowl, add around a spoon of luke warm water to it. Stir it well till the yeast dissolves.
- To this add all purpose flour, gram flour, sugar and oil.
- Add luke warm water little by little and keep stirring the batter so that no lumps are formed. The batter should be really smooth.
- The batter should flow but not run. It should be semi solid in nature. Once the reaches the right consistency, cover it and set it aside in a warm place for about an hour.
- Now to make the syrup, mix sugar, water, lemon juice, cardamom and saffron in a saucepan.
- Boil it for about 15 to 20 min. Keep stirring in between so that the sugar does not settle down in the bottom and it dissolves.
- After an hour is over, check the better and see if it is fermented. Stir up the batter to make sure it is smooth and it flows.
- Fill the batter into a ketchup bottle/icing bag (any plastic bag or bottle which can be squeezed and has a nozzle to pour.)
- Heat oil in a frying pan. To check to see if the oil is ready, pour a drop of batter into it, it should rise to the top without changing its color right away.
- Squeeze the batter into the hot oil in whichever shape you want (mostly go spiral) and fry until the jilebis are golden brown on both sides.
- Remove them into tissue paper and once there is no oil on the jilebis, dip them into the syrup for few min making sure that the jilebis are coated with syrup on both sides. (The syrup should be hot or else it will solidify)
- Serve hot or warm and enjoy.
