Home-made Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamun is a popular Indian dessert served at festivals and major celebrations like marriages. I got this recipe from my very good friend Janaki who got it from one other common friend of us Nitai Prem. Janaki often says that "Nobody can go wrong with this recipe" and I ackwoledge her statement that its very very simple and easy to make it. We often make this for our spiritual gathering and I assure that "no one can eat just one".

Ingredients
gulab jamun
2 cups-  milk powder 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
oil for deep frying


 syrup
2 1/2 Cups sugar
4 cups water
few strands of saffron
cardamom powder 1/4 tsp (optional)

Method:
In a bowl mix the ingredients of gulab jamun and make it into a dough and leave it for an hour. Grease your hands with ghee and and make small balls out of the dough. Heat oil in a pan in high flame and then reduce it to medium flame and fry the balls in a medium flame until the balls become evenly brown. The balls doubles its size once dropped into the hot oil so give enough space for the balls to fry. In the meantime, dissolve the sugar in water and boil them. Keep stirring until it dissolves. Add cardamom powder and safforn strands. Allow the syrup to boil for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat. Drop the fried gulab jamuns in the syrup and let them rest for 15-20 minutes prior to serving. 


Note: Adding whipping cream makes the gulab jamuns soft. But be careful not to add too much as this might make the gulab jamun so soft that it might not be a firm ball.

Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamun…. Oh my God! My mouth is already watering thinking of a hot gulab jamun with cold ice cream melting in my mouth.This is a classic sweet dish,dried milk dumplings,deep fried and soaked in sugar syrup makes a favorite subcontinent sweet.It is a perfect dessert for any occasion like wedding, birthday party, potluck or dinner.I used the Gulab jamun mix from the store.

Ingredients
Gulab Jamun Mix - 1 1/2 cup
Whipping cream - 4 tbs

For sugar syrup
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
Make the syrup in a pan by adding Water, Sugar, Rose Syrup, Cardamom Powder and Saffron. Put the pot on the flame and bring to boil. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat and allow it to simmer.

In the Meanwhile, get the oil for deep-frying ready. Heat up the oil on low-to-medium heat.
For the dumplings,sieve the gulab jamun mix and add the whipping cream little by little. Slowly start mixing a make a dough.
Allow it to rest for 5 minutes. Make sure they are smooth and do not have any creases.Take each part and press in the palm and roll it into fine balls.
Drop the balls in the hot oil at medium flame and fry these balls until they turn golden brown color.Take them out into a paper towel.
Bring the syrup to another quick boil and drop in the dumplings.Turn off the flame and cover the Gulab Jamuns and let them soak in the syrup for an hour or more.

Amrakhand

I was browsing through for the Shrikhand recipe and landed on this one. Amrakhand is nothing but Aam plus Shrikhand where Aam means Mangoes and Shrikhand supposedly means Ambrosia of the Gods. Shrikhand is also the name for a traditional Maharashtrian dessert made from yogurt, nuts and saffron. So this version of Shrikhand which uses Mango as its central taste factor is termed as Amrakhand. In simplest western terminology you can call this Mango Smoothie. It came out very well and we loved it. One added advantage is that you can make this for ekadesi also.

Ingredients:
Curd - 400gms.
Sugar - 5- 6 tbsp
Cardamom - 3.
Few strands of Saffron
Milk – 1 tbsp
1 fresh mango, to make about 1 small cup mango pulp (you can use canned mango pulp too)
1-2 tbsp charoli nuts for garnish
few fresh slices of mangoes for garnish

Method:

Tie curd in a clean muslin cloth overnight. (6-7 hours). Put into a bowl. Powder the sugar and cardamom and mix it with the curd. Rub saffron into 1 tbsp. milk till well broken and dissolved. Keep aside. Beat well till sugar powder has fully dissolved into curd. In case the saffron strands have not dissolved completely, add them along with the milk to the mangoes. Make the pulp and add it to the curd mixture and Mix well. Empty into a glass serving bowl, top with the nuts and mango slices. Chill for 1-2 hours before serving.