A light, fruity fritter with a new twist
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| The LIVE counter |
What was for dessert?
That’s something I ask friends who discuss a meal out. And that’s something I too am
asked often. This , I suspect, is less
because of a sweet tooth that most of us have but dentists never extract, and more on account of
curiosity about the wow dish that wraps
up the meal. Now a days there are a few in that section.
The variety in the dessert section typically comprises a
hot, a cold, and a baked, dessert, and a section of cut fruits. There are sub sections,
like an assortment in the baked lot. And there are combos that can blow you hot
and blow you cold—like jalebi and kheer or rabri, maalpuah-rabri, kala jamun in
kheer..
At a “roka” ceremony –celebrated in North India to fix a
match of the matrimonial variety— I attended recently, there was a live counter
of jalebi and rabri. But it was not the regular mithai, but an apple jalebi.
One of the cooks (halwaai, really) told me they made it with pineapple as well.
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| Peel, core and make apple rings |
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| Dip the rings in the batter |
For weight watchers and fitness freaks, this fruit based jalebi is not going to be a healthy option.
But like in the case of many rich Indian dishes, we can rob them of much of their richness, without leaving them in tatters!
Will first take you through the visuals of the apple jalebi , and later discuss ways of stripping them of the calories et al.
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| Deep fry the batter-coated apple rings |
The ingredients for
the apple jalebi :
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| Dunk the apple jalebi in sugar syrup |
Apples
All purpose flour/maida
1 Kg
Gram flour/besan 250
gms
Cooking soda 1
tablespoon
Sugar for syrup
Refined vegetable oil to deep fry
Saffron strands, to flavor the syrup
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| Let the sugar syrup drain off |
Ingredients for the rabri
Full cream milk, 20 litres, reduced to 5 litres
Sugar 2 kgs
Method:
Bring the milk to boil, simmer, stir constantly as it is
reducing, to ensure it does not get burnt. When it acquires a texture and
consistency, it is ready. Add sugar after it has cooled a little bit.
The “rabri” can be made a day in advance.
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| The Rabri.. |
Add 300 ml water to a kg of sugar, bring to boil, let it
simmer till it acquires a one –string consistency. Add saffron. Take it off the stove.
To make “apple
jalebis”, mix the all purpose flour,
gram flour, cooking soda, add water little by little and make a batter of
the pancake /dosa batter consistency.
Leave to rest overnight/ 6 hours.
Heat oil in a large wok (karhai)
Peel and core the apples, and slice such that the cross
section rings are about 1 cm thick. Dip
one ring at a time in the batter, till it is coated properly, and deep fry ,
gently pressing it down in the oil for five seconds. Take out, and set aside
for half a minute, to drain off excess
oil, and dunk it in hot saffron flavoured sugar syrup.
Serve each “apple jalbei” with two table spoons of
“rabri”.
The weight and volume of ingredients will obviously depend
on how many servings we want to make.
But the halwai’s “recipe” , is an
indication of the proportion of besan to maida. And the milk is reduced to a
quarter of the original volume.
This was really rich !
To rob it of the calories…
Bake the apple ring in the batter, in a donut pan.
Alternately, use a non-stick pan, and a touch of oil, flip it over, and set it
aside. Drizzle honey/maple syrup/melter fruit preserve on one side.
Serve with custard/ sugarfree ice cream/kheer/firnee. All
these can be made with very little sugar, enhancing the sweetness inherent in
milk.
Enjoy!
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