KALA JAMUN

Ingredients

 Jamun balls

500 grams soft khoya or 500 ml tightly packed khoy dried evaporated milk solids
200 grams paneer
6 tbsp all purpose flour/maida
2 tbsp milkoil or ghee for deep frying

Sugar syrup

600 grams sugar
10 cups water
1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp rose water
1 tsp cardamom powder
25 strands of saffron/kesar

Method

preparing jamun balls

Take 500 grams of khoya in a bowl. the khoya used for gulab jamuns is the soft khoya also known as hariyali khoya or chikna khoya.
Mash the khoya very well with your hands and keep aside.
Grate the paneer and keep aside.
Add the grated paneer and 3 tbsp all purpose flour (maida) to the khoya.
Add 1 tbsp milk gently mix everything very well.
Bring together this mixture and form into a dough. do not knead the dough. just mix and gather to a dough. if the mixture looks dry and does not cling together to a dough, you can add 1 tbsp more of the milk.
Pinch small marble sized balls from the dough and roll them in a round shape between your palms. roll lightly and not heavily.
Roll the ball again between your palms to give a oblong cylindrical shape.roll all the jamuns this way and keep them covered.

preparing sugar syrup

Take the sugar in a pan and add 1.5 cups water.
Keep this pan on stove top on a low to medium flame and stir so that the sugar begins to dissolve and when all the sugar is dissolved, add the lemon juice .
Cook the sugar syrup on a low to medium flame till you get ½ string consistency or the syrup becomes sticky.
When the sugar syrup is cooking, you can begin frying the jamuns.
 When you add the jamuns, the sugar syrup has to be hot.
 Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or deep pan on a low to medium flame.Switch off the flame and add the cardamom powder and strands of saffron, crushed and rose water.

frying jamuns

for testing, slid a tiny dough ball in the hot oil.
The ball should come up slowly this is the temperature at which we will fry the jamuns.
 Fry this small jamun till it becomes golden.
 gently slid the kala jamuns. do not crowd and add the jamuns as per the size of the pan.when you see faint golden spots, turn over the jamuns gently.
when the jamuns have to feel light and not heavy.fry till they turn a shade or two darker than the golden fried color.place them on paper towels.
whilst they are hot, quickly add them to the sugar syrup.fry all the jamuns in the same way and add them to the sugar syrup.cover and allow the jamuns to soak in the sugar syrup. once the sugar syrup cools down, keep the bowl covered in the fridge.serve kala jamuns at room temperature or chilled as a dessert or sweet.