Indian · Dessert
Jalebi
- Advanced
- 45 min
- roughly 4 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with a floral thread lifting the aroma, richness that coats and comforts, fading in warm spice.
Ingredients
- 250 g plain flour
- 60 g plain yoghurt
- 250 ml warm water
- 400 g caster sugar
- 200 ml water, for the syrup
- 4 green cardamom pods, cracked
- 0.2 g saffron threads
- 10 ml lemon juice
- 5 ml rose water
- 800 g ghee, for frying
Equipment
Piping bag
The skills inside
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Start this the day before. Whisk the flour, yoghurt and warm water to a batter the thickness of double cream, beating hard for 3 minutes to work air in, then cover and leave at 25C to 30C (77F to 86F) for 12 hours to 24 hours, until it smells sour and the surface is domed with bubbles. 3 min
- Boil the sugar, water and cardamom to one thread, 106C to 108C (223F to 226F), then stir in the saffron, lemon juice and rose water and hold the syrup at about 60C (140F).
- Knock the risen batter back with 30 seconds of whisking and no more, loosening it with a spoon of water if it no longer falls in an unbroken ribbon.
- Heat the ghee to 180C (350F) and pipe coils from a squeeze bottle, three rings worked from the outside in. Fry about 45 seconds a side, until the hiss quietens and the coil is rigid and pale gold; browning means it is already dry.
- Shake off the fat, drop them straight into the warm syrup for 30 seconds, then lift them onto a rack.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Sautéing & the shallow fry 80 recipes
- Everything sits in a single layer with visible space between the pieces: nothing stacked, nothing touching, or the pan is too small for the quantity.
- The pieces move freely and keep moving, sliding across the pan rather than sticking and tearing when the pan is worked.
- Light even browning arrived at quickly: colour on most faces, not the deep crust of a sear and not grey.
- A thin film of fat with the food glossed by it: no pool left in the pan at the end, and nothing greasy on the fingers or the plate.
- Cooked through but still firm, having spent only a few minutes in the pan: anything that has gone soft has been in there too long.
Where it goes wrong Too much went in at once, the pan cooled, and the food released its water: what was meant to brown in three minutes stews for ten and comes out grey, slack and wet.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Moscato d’Asti
- Also Right
- Late-harvest Riesling
- From the Taps
- Witbier
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling elderflower
Citrus desserts need a wine sweeter than they are, with acid enough to keep up: light, frothy, and low-proof wins.
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