Gulab Jamun ~ ICC October '09


Phew! What a challenge it was!! People like me, who thought Gulab Jamun was the easiest sweet were made to think twice before uttering that again! But regardless of how challenging it was, this was probably my best experience in making sweets. Now after making these Jamuns twice or thrice before getting it perfect, I can assure that I can make best Gulab Jamuns from the scratch! Oh, that was intention of ICC right? :) So here we go on to my maiden venture of ICC of the month, Gulab Jamun initated by Srivalli.

Before going into the recipe, a short story on my first attempt which was a complete disaster. I decided to try out a small quantity and started off with 250 ml milk. It simmered to about 1/2 cup of Khova/Khoya/Mawa. All was fine till here. Now the stupid chef in me woke up and led me through the rest of process. Before I could realise, I had added twice the amount of Maida as to Khova. Needless to say, the result was chunky, elastic balls that could noway qualify for a sweet, let alone Jamun!! ;)

In the second attempt, I donned the role of a sincere student who follow the teacher's instructions to book and went through all of the recipes given by Srivalli. It took me a while to understand the basics, but once I understood the bottom-line, I should say it was surprisingly easy and resulted in proper edible jamuns. I have followed the Yum Blog method here. But it is not Gulab(less) Jamun; I managed to get hold of a bottle of Rose water. So mine is GULAB JAMUN! Gee... :D

Gulab Jamun

The following recipe is from Yum blog.
Makes: around 25 Jamuns

What we need:
Khova – 11/2 cups/ 1 recipe I simmered 8 cups of milk and got around 1.5 cups of Khoya
Maida – 1 cup
Sugar – 3 cups (if you want excess syrup i.e floating jamuns increase by a cup)
Water – 1 cup (increase if you’re increasing sugar)
Cooking Soda – 3 pinches
Cardamom – 4 pods
Saffron leaves – a few I didn't add these
Oil – 1 cup (for deep frying)

Rose water - a few drops

Khova making steps

Method :
1. Combine sugar and water in a flat bottomed broad pan and simmer on a low heat until sugar dissolves. Add cardamom powder and saffron leaves (and a few drops of rose water) and remove from fire.
2. Knead khova, maida and soda and quickly shape into balls.
3. Heat oil on a medium flame. Fry the jamuns till golden brown over a low to medium flame, keeping oil temperature uniform. Oil should not smoke.
4. Drain the jamuns and soak in the warm sugar syrup.

Serve the jamuns after half an hour.

Tips:
You will achieve correct consistency for jamun syrup when 3 cups of sugar dissolves 1 cup water over low heat.
Only when the syrup is ready, mix the jamun dough. Since the dough has soda, if its kept aside the jamuns will disperse while frying and will not hold well.
Right temperature of oil of utmost importance to get soft jamuns.
Never refrigerate jamuns. Jamuns when refrigerated will shrink and become hard. Jamuns will stay fresh for 4 days when stored in air tight containers.
If you like you can add two drops of rose essence to the syrup to make it Gulab jamun.

For this measurement, I got exactly 25 jamuns, of medium sized balls.

Important notes:
1. We must follow the same order to do the jamuns, i.e sugar syrup must be ready before we fry the balls.
2. Since the balls have soda, they cannot stand for a long time. So they must be fried immediately after rolling.
3. If the oil is not of correct temperature, the balls will be unevenly cooked.
4. Add rose water to the sugar syrup only after the syrup becomes warm. If added when the sugar is boiling, it will turn bitter.

My experience:
1. I also used a tbsp of melted ghee to roll out smooth, crack-less balls.
2. I did a mistake of heating the oil too much, so some of the balls turned dark brown. For the second batch, I adjusted the oil temperature and got them right.


Hope you all enjoyed this challenge as much as I did!

Happy cooking and happy blogging!

44 comments:

Kanchan said...

Awesome clicks Rohini!
Infact even I had tried gulab jamuns for the first time this Diwali, but had gone the easier way by buying Condensed milk ;)

Sushma Mallya said...

wow what a lovely pic...looks mouthwatering...

Padhu Sankar said...

Nice mouth watering Julab jamuns .I usually do gulab jamuns with MTR mix as I do not like spending much time in the kitchen.After seeing you all,I too became enthusiastic and wanted to prepare it from scratch.

Ash said...

Phew!!!! I know it's quite tough..... But the result is overwhelming.... Good shaped Yum Tasting Jamuns, I'm sure... Will try some day... when I'm done with all my @$%^$^ ing health problems....

Ash......
(http://asha-oceanichope.blogspot.com/)

Nithya said...

Wow.. yummm.. your jamun is tempting me.. :) lovely pics.. I love the paper flower next to it too :)

chakhlere said...

wow!! From the look of those yummy balls I can tell that they are so soft and yummy.

Seems you enjoyed the ICC very much.

Shanthi Krishnakumar said...

Lovely clicks and mouthwatering.

Sreelekha Sumesh said...

yummyyy.....love the pics..

Sandhya Hariharan said...

Awesome click Rohini.. I liked the pic with a spoon of sugar syrup.. and offcourse the first one too
Thanks for sharing ur experience...
I have prepared from scratch 3 yrs back.. following sanjeev kappor recipe.. but didnt turn out tat well as the MTR mix..

Srivalli said...

Beautiful pictures..they look so soft!..

Tina said...

Delicious and mouthwatering clicks and jamuns...

Sanghi said...

Mmm.. yummy delicious jamuns rohini..! Superb tempting clicks dear!

Ambika said...

Hey Rohini, succulent looking jamuns!!

Saraswathy Balakrishnan said...

Perfect looking jamuns..feel like having them now:DDD

Vidya Rao said...

Too tempting..they are looking so soft and delicious.Nice that you put your valuable notes in..should help us out a lot!

Dori said...

Wow, the pictures are amazing!

my kitchen said...

Beautiful snaps,i cant take my eyes from jamun.It's melting in mouth

SE said...

hi rohini...what a lovely picture...and by the way if there were no disasters you wouldn't have a story to tell...the jamuns look awesome, mouthwatering

Latha said...

Oh my ....such lovely jamuns....just drools me.
Great clicks!!!

lata raja said...

I'm rolling in laughter Ro! When i was your age I've tried making mysurpa with 1/4 cup besan, not really thinking i'm actually wasting time and gas :(We all learn as we experiment. The jamuns look really well done. BTW My 60 got over soon after deepavali--DISTRIBUTION:) So these twenty were mandatory. Apram ennoda notes paaru. I am making my recipe next week for my Vishnu group.

priya said...

wow......each and every pic make my mouth water...so tempting pics...jamuns look so perfect and delicious!!!!

Unknown said...

Gorgeous presentation dear,
Slurp!!! such a delicious dish..am just drooling over the last click..

Dhanya Ganesh said...

Awesome click .I am drooling here looking at the yummy jamuns.....:)

Priya Suresh said...

Am drooling at the last pic..yummyilicious!!!!

Anonymous said...

à®°ோஹிணி..பாà®°்க்குà®®் பொà®´ுதே எடுத்து சாப்பிடனுà®®் போல இருக்கு.

Malar Gandhi said...

Whooo, look at the picture...its indeed awesome click:) lovely jamuns, they look very glossy:)

Nandinis food said...

Wow! Delicious and perfect jamuns! Lovely snap!

Unknown said...

Wow looks so delicious, very beautiful clicks.

Jeyashris Kitchen said...

excellent pictures.Tempting jamuns.nice story too.rohini,can i tell u a secret!!i tried gulab jamuns twice with MTR,mix(5-6 yrs back),i dont know where i went wrong,it didnt came out well.so i gave up trying this at home.
till date i am buying HALDIRAMS gulabjamuns.
unnoda story read panninadhuappram,try pannalamnu oru thought varudhu.
Praying god,laziness should not overcome

Srikitchen said...

wow! it looks delicious!
Check out Oats series round up and i welcome u to join with us in the Variety Rice Series going in my blog!

Rohini said...

@ Kanchan: Thanks dear, should try the condensed milk method next time, no end to Jamuns!!

@ Padhu: Yes Padhu, I also prefer MTR mix, but still for a change we can try it from scratch!

@ Ash: Hope you get better soon, and try these delicious delight!

@ Nithi: Thanks buddy, you have an eye for details!!

@ chaklere:Thanks buddy, yes I really enjoyed it!

@ Sandy: Thanks dear! Havent tried Sanjeev's recipe yet, shud try it sometime

@ Lataji: Thanks you, yeah without such terrible experiences (which makes us laugh later!) cooking itself is not going be fun!

@ Sushma, Shantiji, Sree, Tina, Sanghi, Ambika, Vidya, meeso, my Kitchen, Latha, Priya, Sangeetha, Dhanya, Priya, Ammu Madhu, Malar, Nandini, A2Z : Thanks a lot dearies!

@Jey: Thanks dear..Wow..you reminded me of Haldiram's yummy jamuns n rasgullas!!! Try out with MTR, I think this time you are not going to fail! :)

@ Srilekha: Thanks buddy, sure I'll send my entries to this event.

Rohini said...

@ SE(Denu) Thanks dear!

Sh... said...

jamun is said to be the simplest of all recipes coz of the jamun mix. My sis does something similar to this and then I realized the difference. Though a tedious process the end result is great. You have done it so well that grabbed one from the tray(did u make a notice of the missing jamun??.:)). Lovely paper flower too..:)

Preeti Kashyap said...

Drooling pic Rohini! Truly Yum!

Medhaa said...

Love the picture where the syrup is dripping, so tempting. gr8 challenge

Uma said...

jamuns came out perfect and yummy :)

Anupama said...

Those are really succulent gulab jamuns Rohini! Great work!

Mythreyi Dilip said...

Gulab jamuns looks so soft and juicy. I think its Gulab Jamun season. Yummy dessert isn't, love to make it for all occasions. I'm going to make it for my B'day.

Unknown said...

looks awesome...superb pictures..

Raks said...

Looks yum,juicy! Great effort Rohini!

gtyuk said...

gulab jamuns from the scratch, great patience!!!
they look absolutely perfect, spongy, soft and extremely juicy; nice clicks!!

Anonymous said...

yummo..and I love love the click.

Urmi said...

Wow! gulab jamun. Very tempting and mouth watering picture. Very beautifully presented. I feel like having gulab jamun now itself.

Sowmya said...

Hi,i'm sowmya..I've been following your blog for quiet a long time n ur blog s awesome.This jamun,my god i'm starving to eat it.I've become a fan of urs..Thanks for the mouthwatering recipes...I got ur blog addr from my friend Nirmala's orkut profile.Keep blogging..tc...hv fun

Sowmya