After making so many sweets, I thought it is time for some deep frying. I had bought some sweet potatoes last week, as I like to eat boiled sweet potatoes. But they sat on the counter without being touched. Then I saw this shankarpali recipe in a book. So I thought of giving it a try.
Shankarpalis are small parallelogram shaped deep fried spicy or sweet treats. Many people make these for Diwali. I thought of making these special kind this time.
First batch was not as crispy as I expected. I was pretty much upset as I had made a pretty big dough – below recipe makes a huge batch. I thought the whole thing was a big flop. Then I remembered aayi’s tip, she always says we have to fry them on a medium flame till they are dark brown. I followed that and they came out very crispy. They were simply delicious.
Ingredients: 200gms(2 in number) sweet potato (approx 1 and 1/4 cups after cooking and mashing) 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour( maida ) 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 tea spn baking powder 2 tbl spns ghee 1/4 tea spn salt
Oil + 2 tbl spns ghee for deep frying
Method: Cook and mash sweet potatoes. Mix all other ingredients (except oil- ghee mixture used for deep frying) to make a dough. Take a big ball of the dough and roll into a circle of about 1/4 to 1/2 cm thickness. Cut them into parallelograms(I used pizza cutter to cut). Deep fry them in oil- ghee mixture on a medium flame. Remember to fry them till they are dark brown. If they are fried less than that, they don’t get crispy. Cool to room temperature and then store in air tight container.
Wish you all a very happy Deepavali/Diwali.
Gulab Jamun must be one of the most loved sweets in India. These days it is very easy to make them at home using ready made Gulab Jamun mixes, but few years ago, that was not the case. I used to make them from milk. It was a long process as making of khova or khoya takes a lot of time, but the hard work brings very good results.Â
To make khova at home , heat milk in a thick bottomed pan on a medium-low flame. Keep mixing it once in a while making sure the milk does not get sticked to the bottom of the pan. When the milk has reduced to 1/4th quantity, you need to keep mixing it continuously to avoid sticking. When the milk has almost lost all liquid and got dry, it is called khova .Â
Khova is readily available in markets these days. It can be used to make these jamuns.
Ingredients for Jamuns: 1 cup khova 1/4 cup maida (all purpose flour) 1/4 tea spn baking soda Ghee for deep frying.
For syrup: 2 cups sugar 3 cups water 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder 1 tea spn rose water(optional)
Method: Mix khova , maida and soda very well to make a smooth dough. Make small balls from them (they increase in volume after frying and soaking the syrup, so do not make them too big). In a separate vessel, heat sugar and water. When the syrup starts boiling, switch off heat. Add cardamom powder and rose water(if using). Deep fry the jamuns in ghee and add them to hot syrup. I add them to syrup when both jamuns and syrup are hot. This helps jamun to soak the syrup easily. Allow them to soak the syrup for few hours and then serve.
Makes about 14 jamuns
PS: The quality of jamuns largely depends on the khova used. I never used store bought khova , I always make it at home. Try one batch, if the jamuns break as soon as they are dropped in ghee, instead of wasting the remaining dough, you can make pedas from them.
