Hi friends…

Indian sweets are a main part of our celebrations and festivals. A long awaited recipe is all set to enter my blog. Yes! It’s our own JANGRI

Its originally a Bengali sweet called Imarti or Amriti. One of the tastiest traditional sweets now available all over India at most of the sweet shops.

When I was a child I didn’t know the difference between jalebis and jangris. Just thought that one was thin with sour taste and yellow colour and the other was thick with sweet taste and orange colour . But later got to understand that they are totally different from each other by size, texture and taste.

It is made by deep frying an urud dal batter into flower shape circles and then soaked in sugar syrup. I never thought that one day I would be making them myself. I was always hesitant on drawing patterns in hot oil. And now I feel like it’s a dream come true!

Folks, if I can do it, you too can for sure. I have already uploaded the Recipe of Jalebi .. U can check out my video ..

So come on, let’s make this festive season colourful and vibrant at home!

Ingredients

Urad Dal -3/4cup 

Rice -2tbsp or rice flour 2 tbsp 

Cornflour -1 tbsp 

Salt – a pinch

Colour – little

Water -8-9 tbsp 

For Sugar Syrup 

Sugar 11/2 cup

Water -1 cup 

Salt – a pinch

Cardamom – 3

Rose essence or rose water – 1/4tsp or 2tbsp

Lemon juice -1/4 to 1/2 tsp 

Ghee -1 tsp opt 

Method

To make the sugar syrup

Add 1.5 cups sugar and 1 cup water to a pan. 

Mix this well and let it boil on high flame. 

Add a pinch of salt to balance the sweetness. 

Add 3 cardamoms after washing and opening them. It can be removed later from the syrup once the flavour has merged into it. This is optional. 

At the end we will be adding rose essence or you can add rose water. 

Don’t wait for the syrup to reach 1 string consistency. Switch it off before that. 

It should just be felt slightly sticky between your fingers and not a thread stage.

When the syrup becomes thick to a 1 string consistency, it doesn’t get absorbed into the jangri at the end. 

Just boil till it reaches thick like honey.

Add either 1/2tsp rose essence or 1-2tbsp rose water now. This helps to get rid of the urud dal smell from the Jangri. 

These should be kept aside for a while once it’s ready and not eaten very hot. That’s when you feel the good flavour of rose essence and cardamoms in the jangris.

The aroma of rose essence and cardamoms are filled in my kitchen now. You can avoid any of these if you want and adjust as per your taste. But never add vanilla essence to this. 

Add little orange colour to the syrup now which is optiponal. You can use gel or liquid or whichever form you have. 

Now the syrup has turned a bit sticky. Switch off the gas. 

Add 1/4tsp lemon juice to avoid the sugar from crystalizing. 

Lastly add 1tsp ghee to the syrup to get the good aroma of it. (optional)

Keep this syrup aside now. 

Method for making Jangris. 

I had soaked 3/4^th cup urud dal in water overnight after washing it well. Now I have kept all the water to drain out from it. It should be soaked for at least 4 hours. 

I have used whole urud dal. You can take the same amount of split urud dal if you want. Make sure to use good quality urud dal to get good best results of jangris. 

Add the drained urud dal to a mixer jar.

I had soaked 2tbsp of idly rice in water. Add that also to the urud dal. You can add 2tbsp of fine rice flour instead of the whole rice too.

Rice is added to get a crispiness for the jangris. I had tried with and without adding rice and by adding cornflour too. But this gave me the best results.

Add 1tbsp cornflour which is optional. It’s just to get the crunchiness for the jangris. 

Now grind this to a thick paste like we grind to make urud dal vadas. 

I used 9tbsp cold water to grind this to a paste like this. If it turns little loose in consistency, the jangris won’t turn out well.  The water used will vary for all according to the urud dal used.

Whip the urud dal in intervals and grind it slowly as to use as much as less water as possible. Make sure the mixer jar doesn’t turn hot. 

Transfer this thick batter to a big bowl. Add little salt to it. 

Now mix this using your five fingers rubbing it round to one direction for nearly 5 minutes. 

Add a pinch of colour to the batter which is optional. 

Mix this well to the same direction. 

To know if the batter is in the correct consistency, put a drop of the batter to a bowl of little water. It should float on top as light as a feather. It shouldn’t sink even if you push it down. 

Don’t get worried when you feel it tasting bitter now. It’s the urud dals taste. 

Now let’s begin to fry the jangris. Usually in shops they use a cloth to pipe the batter into the hot oil.

Since we make them very rarely, I am using a piping bag here. You can even use a zip lock cover or any this plastic covers that you buy oil or dosa batter from stores or even a ketchup bottle.

I have placed the piping bag in a glass. Fill little batter into it.

Use a wide pan to fry the jangris by adding little oil. When I fried them in a deep pan for the 1^st time with lots of oil, I couldn’t make the jangris properly. 

Pour sunflower oil upto half of the pan. 

Heat the oil on medium flame. When piping the jangris, reduce the flame to low and then again cook it on medium flame. 

Cut the tip of the piping bag to a medium sized hole. Not too big or too small. Be careful when cutting it.

Reduce the oil to low and then start piping the batter. You can test one on a plate first if you want.

If the oil is very hot, it will begin to rise above as you pipe. So always reduce the flame while piping. 

Place the sugar syrup on the next stove on low flame. The syrup should be slightly hot when transferring the jangris to it. 

Its better to remove your bangles or bracelets while piping into hot oil. It becomes hot and tends to burn our hand. I have experienced such situations. 

Once you pipe it, then slowly increase the flame to medium and pour hot oil over the jangri. 

Turn it over only once its slightly done. Not necessary to make it double layer. You can pipe as per your convenience. 

Transfer the jangri to the sugar syrup only after it is well cooked and become crispy. Leave it in the syrup for 2 minutes and then take it out. 

I have always felt it tastes better the next day after it has absorbed sugar syrup well. 

Once it’s done, remove it from the hot oil and drain out the excess oil from it. 

Drop this into the slight hot sugar syrup. Dip it well and turn it over and let it stay in there for 1-2 minutes. 

Remove it after that and place it on a plate or tray. 

To make the next jangri, reduce the flame to low from medium and pipe the batter. 

Pour hot oil over it and turn it over only after one side is done. 

I am not an expert in the shape. The taste is what matters more. 

Turn it over and repeat the same process. 

When you leave the jangri in the syrup for a minute or two and then take it out, you can feel it slightly heavy. That means it has absorbed some syrup into it. 

Repeat the same steps until all the jangris are done. Be careful while frying and not to burn your hand. 

Don’t do it when kids are around or anyone is with you. Be calm and do it with patience. 

I am done with my jangris. Some of them are small and some big. So not able to tell you a correct count of how many I made. 

If you feel it’s less sweet, you can sprinkle or drizzle some syrup over all the jangris after placing them on the plate. 

For me this is on the higher sweet side. I would add only 1.25 cups of sugar to make the syrup. Those who like it very sweet can add 1.5 cups. 

All of you do try out our Kerala jalebi or Jangri. It tastes just like the store bought ones for me. 

Would look forward to your feedback and support. Please Subscribe to my Youtube Channel friends ..

Happy Cooking! 

With Love

Veena Jan 🥰🥰