Manoharam for ICC

Hi everybody, hope things are fine with you. I am blogging after a very very long time. Something or the other kept me away from blogging. This time I was determined to make it to the ICC.
I was happy with the outcome of my experiment, but was not able to make balls out of manoharam. Reason being my hands do not generally bear heat. So ended up making manoharam bits instead of balls. I had adapted the Recipe 1 given by Srivalli .
This is one snack that my dad simply loves. I usually buy it from Grandsweets, but this time I was very happy to make it at home. It did taste good and everybody at home relished it.

I simply love the color of Manoharam. This is the effect of jaggery that I got specifically to make syrup - it is called " Pagu Vellam". It has a deep brown color and tastes yum. Jaggery syrup is a usual item on my dining table as people at home loves to have it with Idli, Dosa, Upma , etc.,

All it takes is a start, this post has made me realise how much I missed blogging on the whole. I will be back with more recipes. Enjoy.

Gulab Jamun - October ICC

Here comes the Indian Cooking Challenge for the Month of October Gulab Jamun...Hmmm.. mouth watering sweet indeed.

This sweet is a favourite of the whole house hold, especially dad. He loves sweet in any form . Making it from scratch was a whole lot fun and I enjoyed it completely.

Ingredients

Khova – 11/2 cups
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
Oil – 1 cup (for deep frying)

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 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.