Imarti /Jangiri

I thank Raks for making me create a milestone in my kitchen by trying out two great Indian Sweets - Rasgulla and Jangiris/Imarti for this Diwali. It is a real achievement to create such traditional sweets in your own kitchen.


Ingredients

1 cup Split black gram skinless/whole white urad dal
1/4 tsp Rice flour (optional)
1/2 pinch of Orange food colour 1/2 pinch
a dash of salt

For Sugar syrup:

5 cups of Sugar
water just to immerse the sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice (optional)
6 drops of Rose essence
a pinch of orange food colour
1 tsp green cardamom powder



Preparation
Soak urad dal for 2 hrs. Drain and grind with very little water as we do for grinding vadas.The batter should be fluffy and smooth.
Add a dash of salt, food colour and rice flour(makes the imritis crispy) and mix well.
Heat sugar with water just to immerse it. Boil till a syrup of single-thread consistency is reached. Add lemon juice, food colour and rose essence and cardamom powder, mix well and switch off the stove. Keep the syrup hot. Take a zip lock cover or a any plastic cover and make a hole.The hole should be very tiny.
Fill half the cover with the batter and first practice doing on a plate. Draw two circle first and draw small swirl like circles over it.Just needs a little practice to get the right shape:)



Then heat oil in a flat bottomed pan with low heat where oil should be of 1 inch depth.
The oil should not get fully heated,when it starts forming small bubbles in the bottom,then draw jangiris/imarti in the oil,repeat the same to make many.



Once the jangiris/imarti gets cooked and becomes light,turn over and cook till crisp and then take out carefully and transfer to the sugar syrup.






Dunk the fried jangiris/imarti in hot sugar syrup for 1-2 minutes till they have absorbed enough syrup and take out carefully and arrange it a plate.Give a 1/2 hour standing time (says Raks). But I could not wait to taste:)

Instant Cashew Rabdi (Rabri)

I made this as Neivedyam for Goddess Lakshmi during Diwali. It tastes divine!

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
10 cashew nuts
1/2 cup fresh grated coconut
2 tbsp khoya
2 tbsp ghee
1 tsp Cardamom powder
Almonds for garnish

Preparation

Grind coconut and cashew nuts into paste with very little water and set aside. Boil milk in a heavy bottomed pan and add the coconut-cashew mix to it. On low heat keep stirring for 2 minutes till the mixture slightly cooks. To this add sugar, Khoya, cardamom powder and ghee. Keep stirring for 10-12 minutes, till the mixture thickens and all the ingredients blend well. Garnish with almonds and serve warm!!

Rasmalai and Rasgulla!!! Diwali Special

Hearty Diwali Greetings to all Neivedyam viewers!!

Thanks to Raks for the lovely recipe. It came out so well! My whole family enjoyed it. I followed her recipe step by step.

Ingredients

whole milk 1 Lit(for paneer)
1/2 lit milk (for syrup)
Lemon juice 3 tblsp
Sugar 2 cups
Water 3 cups
Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
10 Saffron strands
Nuts for garnish

Preparation

Rasgullas
Heat 1 lit milk,when it starts boiling, add lemon juice and stir well.
Heat on low flame until the whey water clearly separates. Turn off the heat.
Take a metal strained, lined with a cheese cloth. Pour the curdled milk in it and wash it well with running water under the tap to remove the lemon smell and sourness.
Squeeze the excess water gently from the cloth and hang it for 30 minutes. After 1/2 hour,take out the crumbled paneer in a bowl. Knead the paneer for 7-10 minutes gently to make it a soft and smooth dough. Make smooth equal sized balls. Round ones for rasgullas and a little flat ones for rasmalai.
In a pressure cooker, add water and sugar to make syrup and boil it. Also add cardamom powder. To the syrup add the paneer balls carefully one after the other. Pressure cook on low flame till one whistle. Let it stay for 5 more minutes. Turn off the heat. Once the cooker cools off, you can see the paneer balls in the syrup have doubled the size.
The Rasgullas are ready and can be served chilled. But in my house it was over as soon as I opened the cooker:)
Since I was making it for the first time the shapes were a little flat like rasmalai so I made some.

For Rasmalai-
Heat 1/2 litre milk, add 1 cup sugar, saffron and cardamom powder. Bring to boil and let it thicken a little. Turn off the heat. when the milk cools a little, remove the rasgullas from the syrup and dunk them in milk garnish with nuts and serve chilled!!