INSTANT JALEBIS- JILIPIS FOR DIWALI & KALI PUJO

Diwali is just round the corner. And of us Bengali Hindus, we also celebrate Kali Puja at the same time. While Diwali is celebrated as the Festival of Lights, Kali Puja is the worship of Goddess Kali and her energies. Both the festivities take place after sun down. Lights and fire crackers are an integral part of the celebrations. It marks the victory of good over evil. New clothes once again and loads and loads of Sweets are the order of the day.

Festive food is always special for me. While in India you have the option of going over to your favorite Sweet Makers, and ordering your stash of favorite Sweet Treats for the festivities. But those of us not in India, either we have to satisfy our sweet cravings with the canned sweets available or make batch of our favorites.  I personally favor making a batch, even if its a small batch. This year, I got extra adventurous,and made two batches of two different kinds of Indian sweets.

The first was a batch of Instant Jalebis or Jilipis as their called in Bengali. And the next was---well, its coming up in the next post. For those of you who are not aware of what I am talking about, Jalebis are sweet pretzels, made with a lentil batter flavored with saffron and then dunked in a sugar syrup. They are crisp and sweet and too good to resist.

Coming back to making the Jilipis, I always felt that they are very complicated to make, till many friends assured me that it was not. I know nothing equals making something from scratch, but as it was my first time, making Jalebis, I decided to stick to the easier route of using a store bought dry mix. It came with a squeezie bottle, much like the plastic squeezie bottles, many of us have lying around at home. The idea was to make the batter according to the package instructions, fill it in the bottle and then pipe away over hot oil.

 I think I have decent icing /piping skills, so I thought it would be a cake walk. But i had forgotten the bit, that you have to pipe over hot oil, and the resulting heat can sway your hands or your apparent skills at icing.

Lastly the fried jalebis are immersed or dunked in a sugar syrup favored with green cardamoms. And if you are more indulgent, you can flavor the batter with saffron and add a few strands of saffron to the sugar syrup itself. Indulgence is the order of the day when it comes to festivities.

I know many will frown upon me, for using a story bought Jalebi Mix rather than preparing the dry ingredients mix from scratch. The same way, using a store bought cake mix is often frowned upon by many. But my point is, it made my life easier, and I could squeeze in , making some sweets, with my crazy schedule. Maybe next time, I will be more adventurous and start making Jalebis from scratch. Happy Diwali and Shubho Kali Pujo to you all !!!

JALEBIS- JILIPS : 

Ingredients : 
Instant Jalebi Mix - 1 packet
Water : 2 cups
Sugar : 1 cup
Saffron strands : A few
Green Cardamom: 4 to 5
Bay leaves : 2

Procedure: 
 First make the sugar syrup. In a sauce pan, mix in the sugar, water, bayleaves and cardamom and bring it to a boil. Once all the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat to lower and let it simmer, till it reduces to half its quantity and the syrup has a single thread like consistency. Be very careful when you are making this syrup as its extremely hot and sugar burns are nasty.

Let it cool down to being warm, rather than boiling hot.It kept mine on the low burner as I start dot make my Jalebis.

Make the batter according to the package instructions. I added in some saffron strands to the store bought dry mix batter . Once the batter was smooth, I filled it in a squeezie bottle.

Then I took a non stick pan and added oil and let it heat up to medium heat.

Pipe the batter on to the oil, in 3 1/2 concentric circles. Fry till light brown and crisp on both sides. Do it in batches please. I know the package said 3 and 1/2 circles, but I was looking more at how they were shaping up and my Math skills were haywire.

I drained the fried jalebi over some paper towels, then dunked them in the warm sugar syrup for around a minute. Anything between 30 seconds to a  minute is enough for dunking them. You want the jalebi to be coated with the sugar syrup but not lose their crispness.

You can serve it warm or cold. You can pair warm jalebi with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Its a great combination.

So go ahead and make your own batch of your favorite sweets and make the festive times much more sweeter.

Happy Diwali once again !!!

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AAM DOI: BAKED MANGO YOGURT: HOLI SPECIAL

Happy Holi to all of you !!! Our Holi was pretty monochromatic in the grey Midwest. We are awaiting our Holi celebrations over the weekend. If at all, we can make it on time. But I am hopeful.

Holi is synonymous with something sweet on the plate. An extra helping of dessert doesn't count as an extra helping. Gujiyas, Gulab Jamuns and the list goes on and on. When we were younger, my Dad used to make sure there was almost a never ending supply of Gulab Jamun at our place on Holi. People used to keep dropping in, throughout the day,and the Gulab Jamuns were served on and on. Ahhh those days of guilt free sugar intake.

While I am not at all the quintessential Desi, who whips up sweets on every Indian Festival, there are some times, I like to indulge myself. But my pantry was not greatly stocked , to make some Kalakand or Gulab Jamun. So I thought why not MISHTI DOI .  That's easy to pull off and even the Kiddo loves it. So MISHTI Doi it was, but with a twist. I had a bag of Frozen Alphonso Mango Chunks, which were inherently on the sour side, to be consumed on their own. With a dash of Saffron, and the rest of the Mishti Doi ingredients, this mango could actually work wonders. It would look fancy too.

Taaadddaaaaaaaaaa !!!!!

AAM DOI (Mango Yogurt) it had to be !!  It was  a no-brain er. We could convince ourselves that the sugar intake was balanced by a helping of Fruit. So much for trying to maintain the waistline, when it doesn't want to maintain itself.

My previous experience of making Aam Doi was different as I had used the store bought can of Saffron infused Mango Pulp from Swad, I think. I was a bit iffy as to if my experiment of using these sour mango chunks would help or end in a disaster. I said to myself, that if it turned out well enough, then I could share it my friends, as Holi sweets, or else, Me and the Man would be having Aam Doi for all our meals.

The experimentation worked. It was just about adding a few more ingredients to my already fool proof MISHTI DOI  recipe. Did I mention of a KC Bong lady who drove me nuts for my Mishti Doi Recipe. Like a helpful soul, I shared my Blog post with her. She goes on ahead to make a not so great version of it, at every possible function,without a single credit to me. And why do you think hers was not as great as the recipe called for? She clearly wanted to do a cost cutting version,and subbed the Condensed milk and the Evaporated milk. The result was a chalky white doi,which was more sour than Mishti(sweet). But as my MAa says, Imitation is the best form of flattery.I have learnt to take it all in my stride.

So the only bits of color for us on Holi were the smiles on our daughter's face and the vibrant Aam Doi which we dug in, post dinner.

AAM DOI:

 BASIC MISHTI DOI RECIPE

Ingredients:
Evaporated Milk: 14 0z
Condensed Milk: 14 oz
Plain Yogurt: 14 oz
Mango Pulp made from Frozen Mango Chunks: 10 oz (or Canned Mango Pulp)
Saffron: A few strands(soak them in the evaporated milk for some time)

Procedure:
Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and use a whisk to make sure there are no lumps.

Pre-heat your oven to 350F

Do a taste test. If you feel that the mixture is sour, add in some sugar according to your taste .

Transfer the mixture into oven proof ramekins or a large oven proof bowl.

Bake at 350F for exactly 15 minutes. Turn off the oven. Let the yogurt congeal in the oven for at least 5 to 6 hours. If you feel that the yogurt has finally set, transfer them to your refrigerator.

Serve cold or at room temperature.

You could ranges with some more Saffron Strands or Chopped Pistachio.

Bon Appetit !!!

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PATISHAPTA IN A JIFFY : CREPES FILLED WITH CARAMELIZED SHREDDED COCONUT

Its Makar Shankranti today. The Harvest festival which is celebrated with much fanfare in almost every Bengali household. While not all families have an agrarian background, they join in the celebrations with a special array of sweets,called Pithe. If there was ever a Queen of Pithes, it surely is Pati Shapta.  Pati Shapta are Crepes filled with caramelised coconut, all flavored with a generous helping of green cardamom.

While I have a self confessed sweet tooth, I had never ventured into the field of Pithe Making. Shankrantis during our growing up years, were all about feasting on a wide variety of Pithe at home. Some were made at home, some were Grandma's specialties and some came in from the neighbors. You could literally feast on the delicacies all day and still have more. Ever since I left Kolkata, I missed the bounty during this time of the year. While in Delhi, I would take a auto rickshaw up to C R Park( The Bong Hub), and pack up some Pithe and Patishapta from Annapurna Sweets,along with some Nolen Gurer Shondesh.

But all these years in the Midwest only meant,that if you wanted to eat some Bengali delicacies, you had to make it yourself. there was no Mom to whip it up, or no Annapurna Sweets to pick it up from. Every year I wake up to a million gazillion posts on Social media on all that's been made. And I salivate a bit more at this end. I binge eat on junk food all day, to try and forget the tastes, I am missing so far.

I had thought this year would be no different. But it surely turned out to be. All the Pithe Posts on social media drove me so crazy,that I decided to venture out of my comfort zone. I decided to make Pati Shapta. All from scratch. I have heard in Kolkata, you get packaged and portioned Patishapta Mixes available at many departmental stores.  I had no such luck. A quick browsing through my pantry revealed that I had no Khoa(dry kheer), Nolen Gur(Date Palm Jaggery) and Rice Flour. So I had to make do without those, without compromising on the taste. So voila, I cam up with some hacks. The Puritans might frown at it,but it satisfied my Bong soul on Shankranti and I am happy with it.

So here's what I came up with. I gave the rice flour a miss, as I found the idea of grinding rice in a coffee grinder too painstaking. I stuck to All Purpose Flour and Semolina.

Rather than normal shredded frozen coconut, I decided to use Sweetened Coconut Flakes,from the baking Aisle.

Now for the biggest hack. My Husband could not guess that the Patishapta I had made, was made without Gur. I Used Dulce de Leche(caramelised  condensed milk) to make the coconut filling along with a heady dose of green cardamom. yes you heard it right. It worked wonders, I must tell you. And there wa sno compromise on the taste. The dulce de Leche along with crushed green cardamom was cooked slowly with the coconut flakes. Slow cooking sealed the deal in making it super decadent.

The best part was when my almost two year old daughter, smiled her way through her very first Patishapta.It turned out to be Shubho Shankranti after all.

PATISHAPTA : 

Makes 8

Ingredients:

Batter:
All Purpose Flour : 1 cup
Sugar: 5 tbsp
Semolina: 1/3 cup
Whole Milk:  1 cup or more
Green Cardamom Powder : 2 tsp

Filling: 
Sweetened Coconut Flakes: 2 cups (As I had run out of Frozen Grated coconut)
Dulce de Leche: 3/4  tin
Green cardamom Powder : 2-3 tsp
Milk: 1/3 cup

Oil /Ghee :

Procedure: 

The Filling : 
In a large pan, on low heat. add some ghee, and add the coconut flakes, and green cardamom and the milk. Once the coconut flakes are re hydrated a bit, add in the Dulce de Leche. With  a wooden spoon, mix it all well. Keep cooking it for around 20 minutes or so, till the mixture has congealed into a sticky mass. Remove from heat.

Batter: 
Mix in the ingredients and whisk in the batter to a thin consistency.  Keep adding the milk slowly to make the batter.  Adjust the amount of milk you want to add, according to the consistency of the batter.

Crepes- Patishapta-Final Assembly : 

I had used a 8 or 9 Inch Non stick pan. The size of the crepes and the amount of batter per crepe will vary proportionately.

Place the pan on medium high heat. With a brush, smear some ghee or canola oil on the pan.

Then ladle 1/3 cup batter on the pan, and twirl the pan, so that the batter is evenly spread. when you see bubbles on the side and when the sides start to change color, then its time to add in the filling .

With a spoon, add in the filling to one side of the crepe, lengthwise. Don't scrimp on it. I had not been too generous on the first crepe and improved from the second one.

With a spatula carefully roll the crepe over and transfer it on to a plate.

 

You can serve it both warm and at room temperature.

For extra decadence you can drizzle from condensed milk over the Patishapta.

Bon Appetit !!!!

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