Gulab Jamun - trial and error

I recently ventures to make gulab jamuns from GITS brand GJ Mix. It was a trial run for a future party. Some observations that i made were-

1) Use milk to make the dough of gulab jamuns. It should be real moist. After it has rested for 10 minutes, while making balls , your hands should be well oiled. If the balls dont roll or you see small cracks add more milk drop by drop. If the dough becomes too watery add milk powder to make it just the right consistency.

2) The oil should be the right heat, not too hot or it will burn, too cold and the balls wont fry well. If they take a few seconds to rise and not immediate then the oil temperature is just right.

3) Fry few of them at a time so that you can turn them and ensure equal color on all sides.

4)The sugar syrup should be real concentrated, if it is watery the GJ will be soggy . If it is concentrated they will be firm and maintain their shape. The syrup should be warm not hot.

You can add rose /vanilla essence to the syrup.Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Needless to say it was a huge success......

Novice sweet venture

Diwali being around the corner (being an excuse) , but mainly to satisfy my uncontrollable sweet tooth craving , I ventured to make Besan Laddoos. They are a sweet dish made of chickpea flour in India. Most of my earlier cooking forays into the sweet department have been failures including kheer, who can mess that up? but I have :). There was the Ras malai that turned out like Basundi and the Gulab jamun that I had to throw( made from a pre packaged mix nonetheless)......

So it was with great trepidation that I started out. Preparations started weeks in advance , scouring web pages for recipes....and shopping for ingredients ......I dint have a measuring cup so I used a plastic cup....measured maybe 4 cups of besan and added it to the half cup butter that had melted in a wok. The recipes said to stir till a fragrant aroma of fried besan filled the kitchen.

Now I was struck with a dilemma , what if I dint feel it was fragrant? What if I took it off too soon an d it tasted raw? What if it got burnt?
Thus started the slow agonising process of stirring it over a low heat , waiting for the aroma. After half an hour , the besan had turned golden but still no aroma.....guess it was my nose...I proceeded to take it off the stove and added 2 cups of sugar ,roasted nuts and cardamom powder( eyeballed it).

Then the easy part of rolling it into balls , though the laddoos came out small coz of my small hands.....

The acid test was by the husband ......he popped one into his mouth and declared .....he had never tasted something so unique before ..( he knows better than to badmouth it )...and so ended the days adventure.....I can now proudly declare that I am master of Besan Laddoo making!... till next time.....

Haircut ordeal

I'm a person who rarely likes spending hard earned cash on frivolous things like haircuts(I'm sure many would disagree), but that's just how I am. So when the occasion came to attend an important function ,I decided to splurge on a haircut. I began scouring ads online for students who were offering discounts on salon services. Not only did I not want a novice cutting and ruining my hair, I also did not want to spend 3 digit figures on a cut and color. So finally I found someone who was trained but offering discounts as she had just joined a new salon.



Much intimidated by big salons where even the receptionist looks down her nose at you, I was sceptical about this salon too.But they had none of the arrogance and snobbishness that I expected . I was greeted with a warm smile and waited only few minutes before I was seated in the "sacrificial chair".

But I walked out of the salon feeling like a million bucks. Needless to say I will be returning for a trip soon.