Gulab Jamun From Khoya, Kova

          Happy Tamil New Year And Happy Vishu ! Traditionally, today we make a full course meal, with sambar, rasam, poriyal, varuval, kootu, appalam, vadai and payasam for lunch, but since it's not a holiday for both my husband and daughter, I didn't feel like cooking such an elaborate lunch for myself. But still, I wanted to do something sweet, I had bought some khoya for another dish, had some left in the refrigerator and I wanted to do something with it. So instead of doing the regular payasam I made some gulab jamuns using the khoya. This is the first time, I am doing gulab jamuns from khoya and after checking out many recipes, I finally followed  the recipe of Harichandana of Indian Cuisine. The gulab jamuns turned out really very soft and delicious, the only changes that I might make next time is, add another 1/2 tablespoon of flour and make slightly stiffer dough. Since the final dough was very soft, the jamuns seem to absorb some oil while deep frying, of course I drained the excess oil, but I thought, the next time I'll make the dough a little firmer. But other than that, the jamuns were awesome, soft to the core ( literally, with no hard centers ), and very easy to do too..

Need To Have

• Grated Khoya/ Kova - 1 cup ( don't press and pack while measuring )
• All Purpose Flour/ Maida - 2 1/2 tablespoons
• Baking Soda - 1/8 teaspoon
• Cardamom Powder - a pinch

For The Syrup

• Sugar - 11/2 cups
• Water - 3/4 cups
• Cardamom Powder - 1/2 to 1 teaspoon

Method

          Take the khoya, flour, baking soda and cardamom, mix it lightly, then sprinkling very little water, bring it together to make a soft dough. Don't knead the dough, just cover and keep.

          In the meantime, heat the sugar and water, when the sugar is completely dissolved, simmer it for 2 to 3 minutes, till you get a slightly sticky syrup ( when you touch between your thumb and fore finger, it need not form a string, but should feel slightly sticky ), mix in the cardamom, switch off and keep.

          Take the dough, roll out small smooth balls and keep. Heat some oil/ ghee or a mixture of both, reduce to low medium heat, drop the balls, a few at time, fry till golden brown, remove and drain the excess oil.

          Finish frying all the balls, then add them to the sugar syrup, leave them to soak for at least 2 hours before serving.

Note
While deep frying the balls, the temperature of the oil should be such that, the balls take some time to turn golden brown, you'll see only some few bubbles sizzling, when you drop the balls into the oil.
The sugar syrup should neither be cold nor too hot, when you dip your finger, it should be bearably hot.
If you like rose essence and saffron, then you can add both to the syrup along with half the cardamom.