My 3 yr old son waiting for the photo session to end!

October has been crazy for us. A very very busy month. 2 appointments with HDB in 2 weeks – for buying and selling of our new and old home, 2 birthdays – my son and my hubby celebrate their birthdays 4 days apart, and packing, recycling and discarding the unwanted things in our old home and finally- the most important thing – dreaming, redesigning, renovating, furnishing and lot of other projects in our my new home …

And on top of all this the Gulab Jamun Challenge. Before this perfect recipe i tried gulab jamuns from 4 other sites – all different recipes. All turned out hard small balls after frying… i waited and waited for it to be  soft in the sugar syrup but no.. all were the same, it didnt become soft in the syrup..

I finally gave up and was about to email Srivalli that im out of the challenge, then luckily i came across this site Show Me The Curry The quantity of the recipe was small so i thought why not give a last try. I followed thr recipe exactly. And it turned out perfect.. I’m jumping with joy now!!

I feel so sad for wasting a lot of things during my tril period but i think you should try try again for the perfect one!!

Here goes my perfect recipe for the Indian Cooking Challenge – this was a challenge for me Srivalli

Ingredients:

Instant Dry Milk (Milk Powder) – 1/2 cup (I used fernleaf full cream milk powder)

All Purpose Flour – 2 tbsp (i used Prima Plain Flour)

Yogurt – 2 tbsp (i used home made in room temparature)

Clarified Butter – 1 tbsp (i used QBB)

Baking Soda – 1/4 tsp

Water – 2 cups

Sugar – 2 cups

Rose Essence – few drops, optional

Cardamom Powder – 1/2 tsp or to taste

Saffron – few strands, optional

Oil – for deep frying

Method:

1. Make the syrup in a pan by adding Water, Sugar, Rose Syrup, Cardamom Powder and Saffron.

2. Put the pot on the flame and bring to boil. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat and allow it to simmer.

3. Meanwhile, get the oil for deep-frying ready. Heat up the oil on low-to-medium heat.

4. For the dumpling, in a mixing bowl , add in all dry ingredients i.e Instant Dry Milk , All Purpose Flour, Baking Soda.

5. Mix well and add in the Clarified Butter and after that slowly start mixing in the yogurt. Make into a dough.

6. Allow it to rest for 5 minutes. Make desired size balls, make sure they are smooth and do not have any creases.

7. Test the oil by dropping a small piece of dough, if it sits at the bottom of the pan for a minute before coming to the surface, the oil is ready.

8. Carefully drop 3-4 dumplings in the oil and keep rotating them for an even color.

9. Once the dumplings are a dark golden brown, take them out into a paper towel.

10. Bring the syrup to another quick boil and drop in the dumplings.

11. Turn off the flame and cover the Gulab Jamuns and let them soak in the syrup for 45 minutes to an hour.

12. Gulab jamuns can be served hot or cold. This recipe makes about 10-15 Gulab Jamuns.

Tips:

1. The one thing we cannot emphasis enough is the temperature of the oil for frying…it is the key to making good gulab jamuns. It has to be on low-to-medium heat.

2. The dough is a little on the crumbly side…so use a little oil on your hands and make the ball and flatten it out and then roll it to a ball…this will help smoothening out the cracks

This post also goes to First Cooked Food Event