Jalebi /Zalabia or Indian Muffle Cake

Jalebi is a very popular sweet of North India. It is mostly eaten as breakfast with curd/dahi/Yogurt. It is made by deep frying the batter in a form of pretzel and then soaked in sugar syrup. It somewhat resembles Muffle cake. It is also the national sweet of India, probably because it is served in defense and government offices on the occasions of Independence day and Republic day! Jalebi was originated in Arabia, where it is called Zalabia and brought to India by Mughal Emperors. It is called Jeri in Nepal. I stumbled on Manjulas Kitchen while searching for the recipe. I decided to follow her recipe as it did not require yogurt/curd and has just 1 hr fermentation period. I made minor changes to the recipe to suit my taste and appearance. My jalebies came out perfect.....just the way I wanted.....This is a full proof recipe, give it a try, you will not be disappointed Ingredients: For Batter: All purpose flour [maida] - 1/2 cup Gram flour [besan] - 1tsp Dry active yeast - 1/2 tsp Canola oil [any refined oil] -1/2 tsp Sugar - 1/2tsp Lukewarm water - 1/3 cup [as needed] Food grade orange color - 1 pinch For Syrup: Sugar - 1cup Water - 1/2 cup Lemon juice - 1tsp Cardamom powder - 1 pinch Rose water - few drops [optional] For Frying Canola oil [or ghee (clarified butter)] Method First dissolve the yeast in warm water, stir and let it sit for 5 min Mix all purpose flour, gram flour, oil, sugar and a pinch of orange color [food grade color] Now add the yeast solution and mix it nicely so that there are no lumps Let the batter sit in a warm place for 1 hr to ferment If there is no sun outside then just turn on the oven at 180 F for 5 minutes and then turn it off and keep the batter inside the oven for 1 hr] Caution: do not over ferment the batter In the meanwhile prepare sugar syrup by boiling sugar and water. Keep stirring in between. Now add cardamom powder and lemon juice and turn off the heat [It does not take quite long to prepare syrup of right consistency. Do not boil for long. The syrup should feel greasy when rubbed with the tip of fingers] Making of Jalebies Heat oil in a deep pan [kadai or wok]. Oil is ready for frying if a drop of batter in the oil , if it sizzles and floats on the surface without getting burned Fill the batter in a pastry bag or Ziploc bags or empty ketchup bottles [this is what I used this time] Squeeze the batter in oil in a randomly coiled circles and fry the jalebies both sides until they are golden in color Transfer the jalebies to a paper towel and then to warm sugar syrup Allow it to soak in syrup for a minute and then take it out Serve hot with dahi/curd/yogurt !!!!!

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This is my entry to Food in Color - Zodiac Signs hosted by Ashwini and started by Sunshine mom of Tongue Ticklers . I have prepared Orange colored dish to represent Leo , the zodiac sign. Please read the rules here if you are interested in the event