It’s Friday, so you already know how QUIZINE IN QUARANTINE works, it’s dessert day! This dessert takes us back to the Indian subcontinent, and may not be as popular as its ‘Gulab’ cousin, but is definitely just as sweet, as syrupy, as delicious! – The Kala Jam.
The original milk-solid based dessert; the ‘Gulab Jamum’ is extremely popular in the Indian subcontinent, commonly found in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Myanmar. It’s popularity does however extend further than just the Indian subcontinent with countries such as Mauritius, Fiji, Malaysia, South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago enjoying this sweet treat… and the list goes on!
The variation we try is the Kala Jam – exactly the same as Gulab Jamum, different colour!
INGREDIENTS (7/8 pieces)
Kala Jam
1 cup powdered milk
2 ½ tbsp. plain flour
1 tbsp. semolina
¼ tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ghee
7-8 tbsp. milk
2 cups of sugar
4 cardamom pods
pinch of red food colouring
Mawa
½ cup powdered milk
1 tbsp. ghee
2-3 tbsp. milk
Kala Jam
1. Mix the powdered milk, plain flour, semolina, baking powder in a bowl.
2. Add ghee and knead the mixture adding milk as you go along until you have a slightly harder than dough like mixture.
3. Add your red food colouring to bring out that pink colour.
4. Shape each piece into small squashed balls approx. 5-6 cm in diameter.
5. Shallow fry the balls at a low heat until dark brown in colour. This should time around 5-7 minutes.
6. Pour sugar and 3 cups of water into separate pan and bring to boil.
7. Bring the heat down of sugar syrup mixture and place kala jam balls
into syrup.
8. Keep heat on very low and allow kala jam to sit in syrup for 30 minutes. Turn heat of after 30 minutes and keep kala jam balls in syrup for a further 30 minutes.
Mawa
9. Mix powered milk, ghee and milk in a bowl and knead.
10. Make into a ball and allow to set for 30 minutes.
11. Grate mawa over kala jam and serve!
Watch how it’s done below!