Durga Puja in Assam seems synonymous with tasty jalebis. Few are the hearts who do not yean to bite into the sweet crunchiness, dripping with sugar syrup. To top it, the flavour is sometimes taken a notch higher with a dollop of rabri poured over the twisty dessert! Ever wanted to try making some of your own? Then get the recipe here!

Ingredients:

For Jalebi
•    Flour (Aata): 1 cup
•    Purabi Plain Curd: 3/4 cup
•    Water: 1/2 cup
•    Purabi Ghee: 1/2 tbsp
•    Corn Flour: 2 tbsp
•    Baking Soda: 1/2 tbsp
•    Oil for deep frying
•    Rose water: a few drops

For Sugar Syrup
•    Sugar: 2 cup
•    Water: 2 cup
•    Kesar: 4 strands
•    Green Elaichi Powder: 1/8 tbsp
•    Lemon Juice: 1/2 tbsp
 

For Rabri
•    Purabi Milk: 3/4 cup
•    Chopped Raisins, Cashews, Pistachios: 2-3 tbsp
•    Kesar: 4 strands
•    Green Elaichi Powder: 1/8 tbsp
•    Condensed Milk: 1/2 cup

Method

For the Rabri
•    Mix all the ingredients in a large microwave safe bowl. Do not include nuts in this at this stage. Now cook this mixture on high for about 8-9 minutes and keep stirring it after every 2-3 minutes. It must be cooked uncovered and then you can add nuts in it once it is made and put it in the refrigerator.

For the Jalebi
•    Add Corn Flour, Flour and Baking Soda in a bowl and mix them thoroughly. Now add Purabi Plain Curd, Water and Purabi Ghee to this mixture and make a homogeneous mixture with no lumps at all.
•    This mixture needs to be kept overnight for fermentation. In the morning, you can mix a bit of water if the mixture seems to be too thick.
•    To prepare the syrup, use a vessel with a heavy metal bottom. Add Water and Sugar and cook on medium heat until it boils. Then lower the flame and add Saffron, Lemon Juice and Green Elaichi Powder. Keep it on the low heat and move on to prepare the Jalebis.
•    Use a flat frying pan and heat oil in it. The batter that we fermented overnight needs to be poured into a ‘ziplock’ bag with a hole on one side. You can also use a cloth with a hole at one end. Squeeze and pour the mixture into the oil while moving your hands as to make the jalebi shape. The jalebis will rise instantly in the oil and you just need to fry them to get a crispy golden colour. Make sure that it is well fried on both the sides and they are of the same colour.
•    Take out the hot fried jalebis and put them into the hot syrup for about 1 minute. Then shake off the excess of the sugar syrup and they are ready!

Serving the jalebi with rabri
•    The jalebis are best served hot on a plate. Put the jalebi on the plate and then add the chilled rabri over it. This makes a good, yummy dessert!

Pro tips
•    The oil temperature must be just right to make the jalebis. Too hot will burn them and make them reddish instead of orange.
•    Jalebi and rabri can also be served separately but they really taste delicious when combined.