Jangri or Jalebi??

Hmm as usual our (mom and i) talk ended up in food. Almost 99% of the time it’s the same thing. The other day I came across a name “ Jangri”, I thought it’s some new dish , when I opened the recipe I realized it’s our old Jalebi. Pardon me if I am wrong, in Kerala I have never heard a sweet by name Jangri, it’s Jalebi there. So I started telling my mom about this and she started telling me the story about how she learned to make Jalebi.

In my mom’s house when they had a wedding they used to bring the Brahmins famous for making sweets and stock up on all these goodies. She used to go near the work place and watch them make ladoos, jalebis etc. My grandmother never allowed them to enter the kitchen, so when she takes a nap, my mom would sneak in and make all these. So for tea the whole family will relish on the snack and later comes my mom’s punishment for entering the kitchen. Even when we used to make something my grandmother was so concerned at the same time proud, hmm miss those days.

My mom used to stitch special clothes for making jalebis, she’ll make a small hole in between the cloth and stitch around. This will make sure that cloth won’t tear, or I have seen her heating up metal skewer and making hole in the center of plastic bags.

All these details made me so excited that I decided to give it a try. The result was really good, I made almost 2 dozen. After making the batter try the design (Draw two circles, over it draw small circles ) on a plate, this helps a lot when you are making them. I hope you will also like it, enjoy………

Ingredients:

Jangri:

Whole white urad dal-  1 cup
Rice flour (optional)-  1 tbsp
Orange food color/ Jalebi Color-  a pinch
Water- Less than ¼ cup
Salt - a pinch

For Sugar syrup:

Sugar- 3/4 cup
Water- Just to cover the sugar
Lemon juice- 1/2 tsp
Rose essence/ crushed cardamom pods/ saffron strands-  4 drops/4 pods/ a pinch
Orange food color/ Jalebi Color-  a pinch

Method:

Soak urad dal for atleast 2hrs. Grind with very little water ( Add little water at a time to make smooth batter, it shouldn’t be watery). Make a smooth and fluffy batter. To this add salt, color and rice flour. Mix well.

In a shallow pan heat the sugar with water, Let it boil for 3-4 minutes. Add lemon juice, food color and essence or cardamom pods or saffron .Mix well and switch off the stove.

Take a zip lock bag and make a small hole with a thin nail or metal skewer.

Heat oil in a flat bottomed pan. The heat should be low .The oil should not get fully heated, when it starts forming small bubbles in the bottom put a drop of the batter. If the batter rises fast then the oil is too hot. If it stays there for sometime and then rises up then the temperature is perfect. Using the batter in ziplock bag make jangris.

Once the jangris gets cooked on both sides, take out carefully and put them in the sugar syrup.

Remove the jangris from the hot sugar syrup after 4-5 minutes .

Note:

If you are using mixer grinder, stop it in between grinding, this will avoid the batter from getting hot.

If you are using food processor it just takes 15mns to grind the batter and no need to stop in between.

If you are using wet grinder, you can avoid adding rice flour. Again this is optional. Without rice flour it becomes too crispy and more of urad dal taste.






I am sending this to Celebrating Mom Event started by Shabitha Karthikeyan

Fresh Fruit Tart

Recipe Courtsey : Laura Carmen

I am dedicating this dish to all the wonderful mothers out there. My mom loves fruits and custard, so I made this for her on Mother’s Day. Light crispy crust, flavorful custard and fresh bright fruits made it a very elegant dish. She loved it and so did my husband and son. My baby had made some gifts for me and so this Mother’s Day was Extra Special for me. I hope you all had a great day and enjoyed it well.

Tart crust:

Butter, cold- 8 tablespoons
Sugar- 1/4 cup
Flour- 1 1/2 cups
Salt- 1/8 tsp
Egg yolk- 1 large
Half & Half/ Milk- 2-3 tablespoons

In a bowl add the flour, sugar, salt and combine well. Grate or cut the cold butter. Add this to the bowl and mix well. Add the yolk and cream/milk and mix well. The dough should be crumbly (not wet) but should hold together when pinched.

Transfer the dough into a 9 .5 by 1 inch tart pan or pie plate and press into the pan with your palms, working the dough up the sides with your fingers and pressing it evenly around the rim. Trim any overhanging bits of dough. Chill for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 325 F. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the crust is golden. (I used a pie plate and it took like 25mns for me, for tart pan may be it will take only 10-12 mns. Keep an eye on the crust while baking and wait till it becomes golden)

Custard:

Large eggs- 2
Cornstarch- 3 tablespoons
Half-and-half- 2 cups
Sugar- 1/2 cup
Pinch of salt
Vanilla extract- 1 teaspoon
Butter- 1 tablespoon

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and cornstarch until the cornstarch is completely absorbed. Whisk in 1/2 cup of the half-and-half. In a saucepan, combine the remaining half-and-half, sugar and salt and bring to a boil. Whisk 1/2 cup of the hot half-and-half mixture into the eggs, then pour all of the egg mixture back into the boiling half-and-half, whisking constantly. The mixture will become very thick. Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla and butter.

Transfer to a bowl and immediately press a piece of greased plastic wrap over the top of the cream to prevent a “skin” from forming.

Assemble the tart:

When the custard and tart crust have cooled, spoon the cream into the crust and spread evenly with a spatula. Arrange slices of strawberries, kiwi, apricots, and whole berries on top of the cream in circles, starting along the outer edge. When assembling is complete, brush the fruit gently with melted fruit jelly. (Place 1/4 cup in the microwave in a small glass bowl, then brush on with a pastry brush. If all you’ve got is jam, melt it and strain it.)

Note:

The crust can be prepared using a food processor, put the dry ingredients and pulse it few sec. To this add the wet ingredients and pulse it for few seconds.