The Cuminist

gulab jamun

My first guest recipe! This one is from my sister, Aqsa.

I am deferring all the dairy-ish desserts to those of my sisters who eat the stuff - since I don't, I am highly unmotivated to cook it. Plus, most desi desserts in my family are milky. So, any such desserts you see here are likely to be contributions from the Cuminist's Sisters.Anyway, gulab jamun. I just asked Aqsa how she would describe these to someone who didn't know what they are:

"Desi donut!"

That pretty much sums it up.  Soak a donut-y fritter in a heavy sugar syrup, et voila - gulab jamun!

recipe: gulab jamun

2 cups dried, powdered milk

1 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ cup shortening , ghee, or veg oil

¾ cup milk

additional oil for frying

 

for the sugar syrup:

 

2 ½ cup water

4 cups sugar

3-4 pieces green cardamom- squished  (optional)

 

Sugar syrup:

place water, sugar, and cardamom in shallow pan.  Heat mixture until it comes to a boil and the solution becomes clear.  

Keep solution on low heat, slightly warm and ready to catch the hot gulab jamun straight out of the oil! 

Gulab jamun:  

Sift dry milk, flour, and baking powder together.  Add the shortening or oil and mix until it’s crumbly.

Stir in the liquid!

Form mini-sausage shapes – slightly elongated is good, because they plump when you cook ‘em.

 

Heat an inch or two of oil to medium-hi heat.

Place ”sausages” in oil (enough for them to swim in, but not be submerged completely) and fry to a medium brown color.  Making sure to keep moving to brown evenly on all sides.

Place browned gulab jamun directly into luke warm sugar solution until gulab jamun absorb the syrup and become tender.

Store the gulab jamuns in the refrigerator in a shallow container (so they have room to swim around with the sugar syrup!).

banana pakoras (a.k.a. banana fritters)

I didn’t make these up, but I wish I had.  They’re not Punjabi, as far as I know (but aren’t pakoras one of those patterns into which anything can be inserted without making it not-a-pakora?).  I’ve been coming across various renditions (some with flour, some with besan), and thought I’d fry up a batch.  There’s some resonance here for me with frying things and rain and being sick, but I have a cold so the association is muddled in my head. 

Anyway, I just felt like frying, okay?

These would be great with brunch, or as dessert, or with chai.  I would leave the banana pieces fairly big, because during frying they soften up and their edges kind of melt into the fried batter in an amazingly delicious way.  My sense is that less-ripe bananas would be best – again, because cooking softens/ripens them quite a bit.  The ones I used were yellow, without any brown spots yet.

recipe: banana pakoras

4 bananas, peeled and cut into squat cylinders
1 cup whole grain pastry flour (all-purpose flour would work fine)
1 cup almond milk (or any other kind of milk)
1 egg
1 T canola oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
approx. 1 cup canola oil (for frying)

Heat the cup of oil over med-hi heat in a heavy pan.  While it’s coming up to temperature, mix up all the batter ingredients until smoothish, then dump the banana chunks into the batter.  When the oil is hot, use a tablespoon to scoop up one piece of banana at a time and drop it in the oil.  Fry a minute or two on each side, until it’s a lovely golden color.  Drain on paper towels and serve while toasty.