Recipe - Deep Fried Batter Sweets (Jeleibi)

BATTER
2 cup Plain flour
One half cup Rice flour
7 g Fresh compressed yeast or
One half teaspoon Dried yeast
One half cup Lukewarm water
One fourth teaspoon Saffron strands
2 tablespoon Boling water
1 tablespoon Yoghurt
Vegetable oil for frying

SYRUP
3 cup Sugar
3 cup Water
1 tablespoon Light corn syrup
Rose essence to flavour
1 One half teaspoon Liquid orange food colouring

Sift the flour and rice flour into a large bowl. Sprinkle yeast on the warm
water in a small bowl, leave to soften for 5 minutes and stir to dissolve.
Put saffron strands in a cup and pour the boiling water over. Leave to soak
for 10 minutes.

Pour dissolved yeast and saffron with its soaking water into a measuring
jug. Add tepid water to make up 2 One fourth cups. Stirring with a wooden spoon,
add the measured liquid to the flour and beat well until batter is very
smooth. Add yoghurt and beat again. Leave to rest for 1 hour. Batter will
start to become frothy. Beat vigorously again before starting to fry
jelebis. (While batter stands make syrup and leave it to become just warm).

Heat vegetable oil in a deep frying pan and when hot use a funnel to pour
in the batter, making circles or figures of eight. Frying, turning once,
until crisp and golden on both sides. Lift out on a slotted spoon, let the
oil drain for a fews seconds, then drop the hot jelebi into the syrup and
soak it for a minute or two. Lift out of the syrup (using another slotted
spoon) and put on a plate to drain.

Syrup: Heat sugar and water over low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves.
Raise heat and boil hard for 8 minutes; syrup should be just thick enough
to spin a thread. Remove from heat, allow to cool until lukewarm, flavour
with rose essence (about 1.2 tsp of good quality essence is sufficient) and
colour a bright orange with food colouring.

*Jelebis are coils of crisply fried batter with a rosescented syrup inside
the coils. How the syrup gets into the coils is a mystery unless you do
some research on the subject.

I. Chaudhary
Posted to EATL Digest 04 Jan 97

From: "Imran C." imranc@ONTHENET.COM.AU

Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997 10:12:25 +1000