Ingredients
Maida/All purpose flour - 1 cup
Corn Flour - 2 tblsp
Thick Curd - 3/4 cup(approximately)
Cooking soda - 1 pinch
Ghee - 2 tblsp
Yellow food colour - 1/2 pinch
Oil + ghee - for deep frying
Ingredients For sugar syrup
Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Yellow food colour - 1/4 pinch
Rose essence/elachi powder - Optional
Method
Mix maida,corn flour, cooking soda,ghee and yellow food colour in a bowl. Add curd and make a thick batter by adding more water... Consistency should be like vada batter. Keep it in a warm place for 12 hours/overnight or until it ferments well.Next day mix well with a ladle. It should be a sticky thick batter of dropping consistency.
In another stove, boil sugar with water,food colour, until one string consistency. Say 15 minutes in medium high flame. Then add lemon juice, essence/elachi,saffron and keep in lowest heat possible.
In a flat bottomed pan, heat oil+ ghee. Level should be very low as shown in the pic. Take a cloth with a smallest hole in the middle or a durable Ziploc bag with hole in the middle. Fill with the batter and draw circles in a medium heated oil. oil should never fume. Also it should be enough to fry the jalebis porous and crisp. So adjust the heat accordingly. Make 3-4 circles per piece and end the circle by overlapping the tip when you end, otherwise the shape wont be good.
Fry on both sides till crisp and drain it and add immediately to the hot sugar syrup. Let it be dunked in the syrup for 2 minutes at least. After some time, drain it and arrange in a plate.
Notes
The batter consistency is very important,it should be thick like vada batter. If its runny, then jalebi will become flat.
Don’t add cooking soda too much.
While cooking jalebi, keep flame medium to make it crisp.
Fermentation is very important. If you doubt if the batter will ferment or no, you can add a tsp of dried yeast and ferment for less hours.
If using ziploc, use a durable one(thick) as otherwise the bag will tear.
Lemon juice prevents sugar from crystallizing. If you want jalebis to be more on tangier side, add more lemon juice than mentioned.
