Today I have with me, Vineetha, or I would prefer calling her Vinee like many of us do, who blogs at Malabar Ruchi. I have enjoyed really a warm friendship with her and my interactions with her on FB and Whassup have always been filled with lighthearted chats. Even if you read her blog, you will see how down-to-earth a person she is. It is a pleasure having her around in this series of mine and seriously, I cannot explain how excited I am! When I dropped her a message for her contribution, the first thing she asked is, "Do you have Gulab Jamun on that big list of recipes on your blog?" I only wanted to laugh!!! This is one thing I so love to eat, but haven't had the guts to make it, and actually speaking, just one of the items on the ever growing list of to-make and to-try! So I told her not to worry and go ahead as she planned. It is so sad that I don't get to eat it, I've to pacify myself just drooling over the pics!!! Hmm...
Off to you, Vinee...
Rafeeda or Rafee as I fondly call her is one of the sweetest friend virtual friend has gifted me. She has been a great support and encouragement for my blog through her beautiful comments which comes straight from her heart. I owe it to Rafee for making my blog’s font to a readable size as they were really really small before and it was she pointed out that I should make it a bit bigger. So after lots of experiments finally I figured out everything and changed it but what surprised me was even before mentioning that to her she noticed the difference and got back to me ! Such genuine friends are rare to find right ??
I look up to Rafee’s blog not just for recipes, I enjoy reading
her lovely write ups and beautiful quotes which she posts . Rafee's recipes has
left me drooling several times, especially all her typical Malabar dishes and Biriyani’s.
When Rafee hosted a cook out in Kerala kitchen I joined her and tried her Attipathiri recipe. She gave all the directions precisely in the post, so it was so easy to follow her recipe
and it tasted soo delicious too !
When Rafee asked whether I could do a guest post for
her I was more than happy to do it for her and knowing me well, she gave 3
months time, so I got ample time to plan and do this post for her. Since she
left everything to me, I choose this Gulab Jamun for the Big sweet tooth
girl J
Coming to post, making Gulab jamuns were not really
easy peasy as I thought or maybe I should say it’s so easy to screw
it up if u don’t follow the recipe to dot and that’s what my over
confidence did to me. First time I made this I added a little extra
baking soda, so even though the Jamun’s tasted good, it didn’t hold the round
shape after it was fried. Second time I reduced the baking soda but
I think I added one spoon extra butter moreover the baking soda was still more
so it had to binned straight away as it didn’t hold shape at all. So by third time I had better idea and the Jamun’s
came out so perfect ! So the key to get a good jamun is to add just a pinch of
baking soda which doesn’t mean ¼ tsp or 1/8 tsp as
I thought ( silly me ! ). A pinch really does mean a pinch in
gulab jamun recipe !!
Recipe
source – Nupur’s UK Rasoi
Ingredients
For
syrup
Sugar
– 11/2 cup
Water
– 1 ½ cup
Saffron
– few strands
Cardamon
– 4 no ( crushed )
Rose
water – 1 tsp ( optional)
For
Jamuns
Milk
powder – 1 cup
Plain
flour/ maida – ¼ cup
Butter
(melted) – 2 tbs
Whole
milk at room temperature – ¼ cup
Baking
soda – A pinch ( DONOT add more than a pinch )
Oil
for deep frying
Method
In
a thick bottomed pan add all the ingredients ‘for syrup’ and bring it rolling
boil. Reduce the flame and boil for about 10 minutes. Let it cool down.
In
a mixing bowl mix milk powder, plain flour, butter, baking powder and add milk
little by little( might not need whole of the milk ) until u get a soft pliable
dough. Keep it aside for 5- 10 minutes.
Grease
your hands with some oil and divide and roll the dough into 20- 24 smooth small
balls .
Heat
the oil in frying pan with enough oil to sink the jamuns. Oil SHOULD NOT BE HOT
as jamuns get very dark outside and floats to top as soon u drop them and inside won’t be
cooked. Ideal temperature would be medium low – low flame and it should take
atleast 5 minutes for the jamuns to get evenly browned and to be perfectly
cooked inside.
Once
deep fried, let them cool to room temperature before dropping them into sugar
syrup. Let it soak for atleast 1 hour before serving them.
Enjoy
!!
Thank you so much for having me over Rafee and I really wish one day I could meet you in person and taste some of your specials, which by the way can happen any time this year as I have a sister living in ur town J. Jokes apart, Wishing you all the very best and a big thanks to you all for stopping by and taking your time to read this post J
OH... How I wish I could just grab that plate and spoon and just gobble down that gulab jamun... Sigh!!! I guess it's time I go down and buy myself a few to supress my cravings! Thanks a lot Vinee for being a part of my blog, you have graced it perfectly for sure!
Have a nice weekend ahead, friends... :)