Jalebi: Street Food at Home

Recipe Details

Who says you can’t experience your favorite foods from the comfort of your home!  MBSS will be sharing our favorite street foods, monthly. Street Food made at home – MBSS style!

We continue this series by making one of my favorite types of desserts - Jalebi. It has recently been made famous by American singer-songwriter and dancer Jason Derulo posting a video making them on his Instagram.

Jalebi is a popular dessert and breakfast item (!) in Southern Asia. It is like a south asian funnel cake, where the batter (can be made from various flour such as chickpeas flour, corn, or all-purpose) is spiraled into hot oil and then soaked into a sugar syrup. Besides eating as an everyday snack it is eaten on religious holidays or at festivities such as weddings. There are many ways of making jalebis, including using a fermentation technique that takes 12-24 hours. We are going to use a much simpler technique that takes less than 30 mins!

Servings: 8

Recipe Category: Lunch, Dinner, Snack

Difficulty Level: Medium

Cooking Time: 30 minutes (including prep time)

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What you’ll need

For the batter

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 2 tbs corn flour

• 1/4 tsp orange food color

• 1/2 cup greek yogurt

• 1/2 cup water

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• Canola oil to fry

For the sugar syrup

• 1 cup sugar

• 3/4 cup water

• 5 strand saffron

• 1/2 teaspoon green cardamom powder

• 1 tsp lemon juice

Tools

Squeezy bottle (the kind you put ketchup or in)

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INSTRUCtions

Prepare the Syrup

• Mix together sugar and water

• Boil until mixture is thicker - should look like a single string when pulled ( I usually take a tiny bit in a spoon and let it cool and then check texture)

• Take the mixture off the stove, add in the saffron, cardamom powder, and lemon juice, and stir.

• Let the mixture cool down

Batter

• Mix the flour, cornflour together

• Add in the yogurt and food coloring and mix until all the ingredients are incorporated together.

• Add in the water gradually, whisk mixture making sure the batter stays lump-free (around 2 mins with a hand blender)

• Mix well until batter is thick but has a slightly flowing consistency

• Add lemon juice and baking soda at the end and give a quick stir

• Pour mixture into the squeezy bottle

Making the Jalebi

• Warm the oil on a medium heat

• Once you think the oil is ready, add in a teaspoon of the mixture, it should immediately float up without browning

• Squeeze batter in hot oil, making spiral motions from inside to outside. Remember to keep at low heat else you won’t be able to form the shape. If the batter is spreading in the oil, maybe it’s too thin and you need to add some flour to it. (You can check google/Pinterest for checks on how to make the perfect shape)

• Once you have the perfect consistency, test a couple out to get a hang of making the spiral shape

• Once you have the shape you want, continue to make more spirals with the batter

• Turn the stove up higher at the last minute to crispen up the jalebi.

• Remove the jalebi from the oil, using tongs or a skewer, and place into syrup (making sure the jalebis are covered)

• Soak the jalebis for 3 - 5 minutes and remove.

• Continue making the jalebis (keeping an eye on the heat, you may have to wait until the oil cools slightly before making the next batch)

Eat the JALEBIS hot!! Make sure you leave some for your family!!