Jilebi / Jalebi

Diwali, the festival of lights (and sweets!), is here. Back home, these days would be filled with light and the sounds of crackers and fireworks. I am missing all that, being in this part of the world. Another main attraction of Diwali is all the different varieties of sweets that are made at home or become available in stores during that time. So this year I wanted to make something too, which is when I landed upon this simple recipe of Jalebi/Jilebi in Vanitha magazine. It was a super simple recipe that I could not help trying and Jalebis have always been (and still is) a weakness of mine!

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Makes around 40 Jilebis (Depending on the size)

For the dough

Urad Dal	- 1 cup
Water	- 1/2 cup
Yellow Food Color	- 4 drops (Optional)
Refined Oil	- as needed to fry

For the syrup

Water	- 1 1/4 cups
Sugar	- 2 cups
Rosewater	- 1 tbsp
Yellow food color	- 2 drops (Optional)
Salt	- less than a pinch

1. Soak the Urad dal for at least 1 hour.
2. Grind the soaked dal into a smooth paste adding half a cup of water.
3. Add 3-4 drops of food color to this dough and mix well.
4. In a pan start boiling the water and sugar together for making the syrup.
5. When the syrup starts to thicken, add the rosewater, salt and 2 drops of food color.
6. When the syrup reaches a thick consistency, turn the stove to low. The syrup should be on the stove on low flame through out the whole cooking process. Syrup should not be of a thread consistency, but rather that of a simple syrup or syrup of Gulab Jamun. If the water starts to become of thread consistency during the cooking process, add more water and adjust.
7. In a shallow frying pan, add oil and heat. When the oil is hot, reduce the heat to medium which is the temperature to be maintained through out the frying process.
8. Fill the dough into a Ziploc bag and make a small cut at one of the corners to squeeze the dough into the oil to make jalebis. Make sure that the hole you make is really small. You could adjust the size of the hole after trying to squeeze out a little bit of batter to the oil. 
9. Start squeezing out the dough into the oil in any pattern you want.
10. Fry the jalebis crisp and transfer immediately to the sugar syrup.
11. Let the jalebi soak in the syrup for 5-8 minutes. 
12. Remove from the syrup and place it on the serving plate.

Note: Start making the jalebi as soon as the dough is made; do not let it sit too long.

As you can see it is a super simple recipe with very little ingredients. Be sure to try it and I am sure you will like it. A Happy Diwali to all my friends!