Jalebi is a well-known Indian sweet snack. Although it is not very difficult to make, most people in India get their fresh jalebis from the street. They are crispy fried spirals dipped in a sweet sugar syrup. Jalebis come in all shapes and sizes, so little can go wrong... It just takes some practice to keep the jalebi together.
What do you need?
For the jalebi
60 grams of flour
1 tbsp corn flour
1/8 tsp turmeric or 1 drop of synthetic orange food colour
60 ml soy yogurt
60 ml of water
1/4 tsp baking soda
0.5 tsp lime juice
sunflower oil
For the sugar syrup
100 grams of sugar
60 ml of water
2 saffron threads
Pinch of cardamom powder
0.5 tsp lime juice
What should you do?
1. Start by making the sugar syrup. To do this, add the sugar to a saucepan along with the water. Turn the heat up to medium and keep stirring until it comes together. When you grab the syrup with two fingers, and you notice that it sticks, the consistency is good. Then add the lime juice, cardamom powder and saffron. Turn off the fire.
2. For the jalebi batter, add flour, cornflour and turmeric (or orange colouring) to a mixing bowl. Stir and then add the soy yogurt and water. Stir with a hand whisk for about 4 minutes, stirring in one direction.
3. Heat up a layer of sunflower oil in a pan.
4. Meanwhile, add the lime juice and baking soda to the batter and stir well again. Put the batter in a bottle (squeeze bottle). When the batter is too watery, add another tablespoon of flour (think pancake batter). Drop 1 drop into the oil, when it rises, the oil is hot enough.
5. Gently squeeze the bottle and make a quick circular motion (about 4 times) to form a spiral. Fry for about 1 minute, turning once in between, and remove from the oil with a slotted spoon. Repeat until batter is used up.
6. If necessary, reheat the sugar syrup and briefly immerse all the jalebi in the sugar syrup.
Enjoy the sweet snack!