Gulab Jamun

Wow It's really fun making Gulab Jamun from scratch. It's my first recipe for Indian cooking Challenge. I tried Gulab Jamun 2-3 times before this. But the khoya was readymade. It was unsuccessful attempts. This time it really went nice and soft. I tried Indo's method for making Khova and Alka's method for Sugar syrup.

Ingredients

For Khova

Milk - 1 liter

For Jamun

Khoya - 1 cup

All purpose flour - 2 teaspoons

Cornflour - 1 teaspoon

Crushed green cardamom - 1-2

Oil for shallow frying

For Sugar Syrup

Sugar- 400 Gms

Cardamom pods - 2-3

milk - One spoon

Few threads of saffron (optional)

2-3 drops of rosewater(optional but highly recommended)

Procedure

For Khova

Start out by setting the milk to boil in a heavy bottomed wide mouthed pan.

Keep stirring as the milk reduces to avoid milk getting burnt - half way stage.

Continue stirring, takes atleast 1 hour - almost done. Stop the heat when the milk solids come together as a mass - khova ready.

For Sugar Syrup

Mix about 500 gms of white sugar in one and half cup water and keep it for boiling.

Add a spoonful of milk to remove the impurities (impurities if any , will form a scum on surface)

Add 2-3 green cardamoms also in syrup for strong flavor, and a tad of saffron strings (optional)

Boil until you get just a tad sticky syrup. Gulabjamun syrup is not very dense nor too dilute as in Rasgulla

Strain the syrup, add rosewater when syrup is slightly cooled . Always remember two things while using rose water, do not add it while syrup is bubbling hot or on fire, and be particular about the quantity mentioned in every recipe, since even few drops of excess rosewater could lend a bitter taste to the final product.

For Jamun

Mix all the ingredients in a wide mixing bowl until soft textured dough is obtained (keep mixing until it is really soft). Make very small sized balls (bit larger than pebbles) as they swell up after frying and soaking in syrup. Make sure that the surface of dough balls is really smooth without any cracks. In case the cracks refuse to go away, slightly wet your palms with water and roll the flour till absolutely smooth. Now take little oil for frying in preferably flat bottomed pan, and heat the oil. But gulab jamuns are to be fried on LOW FLAME or else the surface will be browned while the core will remain uncooked. Some prefer to place an unsalted pistachio in the center of every gulab jamun while making balls, that way the core of gulab jamun is not left uncooked . Fry one or 2 gulab jamuns at a time and always remember to STIR THE OIL with slotted spoon AND NOT TO TOUCH GULABJAMUNS, which means keep swirling the oil without tossing or turning gulab jamun. Fry till light brown in colour, remove on tissue paper and repeat the procedure with rest of dough. Now soak these in COOL syrup for few hours. They will surely swell up. You can eat hot Gulab Jamun as it is or with one scoop of Vanilla Icecream:)