Gulab Jamun/Gulab Jamoon

Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamun is a milk-based dessert which is fried in oil and soaked in sugar syrup.

This is a famous dish in India and made at home during festivals.

Ingredients

1. Gulab Jamoon Mix - 1 Packet(500 g)

2. Sugar - 2 cups

3.Water - 3 cups

4.White Cardomam powder - 1/2 tea spoon (or crushed cardomam pods)

5. Saffron - a few strands (if available.This is optional)

6. Lemon juice - 1 tea spoon

7. Milk - 1/2 cup

8. Ghee/Clarified butter - 1/2 cup

9. Cooking Oil - for frying the Jamuns

Procedure

1. Take a big mixing bowl. Add the Gulab Jamun mixture which is readily available from the stores.

I had used 500 g of this powder.

2. To this , add 1/2 cup of milk, 1 tea spoon of ghee and knead into a soft dough. Add water as required. Adding too much water at the start would lead to a loose dough. Add water a few spoons at a time and keep kneading till the dough is soft and leave it aside for 15 minutes after covering the dough with a clean wet cloth.

3. After 15 mins, roll the dough into small equal sized dough balls and keep aside

4. Meanwhile, heat the remaining ghee and cooking oil in a wide frying pan/wok in medium heat.

Start using ladles with holes to strain the oil and place the dough balls in them and slowly dip them into the oil. 

Start frying the dough balls in batches till they get golden brown.

Once they reach this colour, remove them from the oil and keep them aside.

Check that the heat is low to medium and the jamuns are slowly fried till they turn colour. This will ensure that their insides are cooked as well, till the core. If you cook these at high heat, they will soon turn color but their inside dough will remain raw and uncooked.

5. To prepare the Jeera/Sugar syrup, take another wide pan and add 2 cups sugar and 2 cups of water and bring them to a boil until a string consistency. To check if the syrup has reached this consistency, you can follow either of these steps. a) Take a drop of sugar syrup and drop inside a cup of water. If the sugar syrup settles down inside the water it has reached this consistency. b) Similary, take a drop of sugar syrup and set in your thumb. Try to stick the fore finger and thumb together on the sugar syrup and remove. If this forms a fine strand, then the syrup is ready. Please be aware the syrup would be pretty hot. please take caution before checking.

6. Add the cardomom powder , saffron to give nice aroma and flavour to the syrup.

7. Add lemon juice and mix well so that sugar syrup does not crystallize. 

8. Add the fried Jamuns into the hot syrup and allow them to remain soaked for an hour or more so that the Jamoons are soft and absorb all the sugar syrup in them.

These can be served hot. But they taste best when allowed to be soaked in the sugar syrup for a long time.

9. Delicious Gulab Jamuns are ready to be served. Enjoy !!