Just a couple days ago, a friend shared a message with me on Whatsapp that was full of Diwali recipes and easy ways to burn the calories gained by eating them. Since I am not selfish, I will share the recipes and the easy and fun workouts to burn the calories to stay happy and stay fit.
I belong to a part of this country where it is allowed to eat sweet in breakfast, rather it is a ritual. If you are wondering what kind of ritual it is, well let me tell you, it is the ritual of eating poha jalebi for breakfast. It is often joked that we people can digest poha and jalebi even as infants. But there is a small problem, we don’t like the poha jalebi made by people of other states. I was born and brought up in Madhya Pradesh and live in Maharashtra right now, no offenses, but these people have no idea how to make perfect poha jalebi. To help them, I am sharing the recipe of my most favorite dessert Jalebi.
Ingredients
Ingredients for jalebi
1 cup maida or all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon corn flour
3/4 cup sour yogurt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoon ghee
a pinch of turmeric powder for color
2 tablespoons peanut oil, plus more peanut oil for deep frying
Ingredients for the sugar syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
a few saffron strands
Recipe
For making Jalebis, mix maida, corn flour, baking soda, ghee and turmeric powder in a medium bowl. Combine all the dry ingredients well, and mix well until combined.
Add yogurt to the dry ingredients and blend them all together to make a thick batter by adding very little water. The consistency of the batter should be thick and not watery, similar to the buttercream batter. It is important to maintain this consistency as we have to make a shape when it is piped in a piping bag.
Cover the jalebi batter and place it in a warm place for 24 hours or overnight, till it is fermented (the batter will rise on fermentation). Once the batter is fermented stir the batter using the cut and fold method and mix it once again.
Don’t over stir as it will reduce the air bubbles which you need intact in the batter. This will make the jalebi being crisp and porous which will in turn help it absorb the sugar syrup.
To make the sugar syrup, boil the sugar with water and saffron strands in a small bowl on medium heat until the sugar dissolves. When the sugar becomes thick and stringy forming one string consistency turn off the heat and keep the sugar syrup aside.
Now to make the jalebis, preheat the oil for deep frying. Once the oil is hot enough, add a drop of batter in. If it rises up immediately to the top, the oil is perfect for frying jalebies.
Fill the piping bag with the jalebi batter and pipe spirals of the batter onto the medium hot oil, until you get at least 3 concentric circles. Fry the jalebi on medium heat until golden brown in color and crisp. Once the jalebi is crisp and browned, take it out of the deep fryer and drain the excess oil out and immediately dip the jalebi's into the hot sugar syrup.
Piping the jalebis into the medium hot oil takes a little experience, the more you pipe the more practice you will get and the better you get at it. After all, practice makes a man perfect! (Wait, what about women?)
The jalebis should rest in the sugar syrup for at least a minute, after which they can be drained out of the excess syrup and then served.
Serve and enjoy the sweets fruits of your labour.
Calorie Meter
One piece of jalebi contains 200 calories.
Calorie Burning
Spending 30 minutes gardening and taking care of your plants will help you burn the calories you gained by eating one piece of jalebi. Do you want to know which side I love to savor the jalebi most? Outside. What better place to enjoy the sweetness of jalebi than amongst the sweet nature. Eat jalebi and look after your plants. A day, well spent.