Sweet potato gulab jamun

Gulab jamuns is the classic indian dessert which is very famous and enjoyed by all in celebration meals.Gulab means rose and jamun means berry.Gulab jamuns are berry shaped balls dipped in rose flavored sugar syrup. Traditionally they were prepared using khoya at home which was tedious process but now a day people make gulab jamuns using readymade packets. Gulab jamuns made from sweet potato is almost similar to traditional sweet from Bengal called as mishit aloo'r pantua.

For dussehra this year I wanted to try some out of the box dessert recipe.While searching for recipes on the internet I found these one.Sweet potatoes are also easily available in this season. I had tasted many other recipes using sweet potato prepared by mom like chips or sweet potato karanji (nevri) but never tried jamun recipe.This recipe is made with fewer ingredients and easy to prepare. The taste of this jamuns is nowhere near jamuns made with khoya but their taste was different and good with soft texture.

                                                       

Sweet potato before cooking

        Ingredients

• Sweet Potatoes - 2 cup mashed
• All Purpose Flour / Maida - 2 tblspn
• Salt - a pinch
• Baking soda- a pinch
• Oil or Ghee for deep frying
• (Makes around 20 jamuns)
• For Syrup
• Sugar - 2 cup
• Water - 1 cup
• Cardamom Pods - 2 crushed

Sweet potato after cooking

        Method of preparation

• Take sweet potatoes clean them,cut them into half.In a pan take water and let them cook until they are soft.
• Poke the sweet potato using fork to check whether they are fully cooked. Then drain the excess water.
• Now once they are cooled down peel and mash the sweet potatoes nicely.
• Now measure 2 cup of mashed sweet potatoes in a bowl.
• Then add salt,all purpose flour and baking soda in the flour. Knead to make smooth dough.
• Now take small portion of the dough, and roll it into a smooth ball. Now set this ball aside.
• Take sugar and water in a sauce pan, heat and bring it to a boil, boil it for around 10 minutes, it will get thick in this time. Let it cool down to room temperature.Add crushed cardamom powder to the sugar syrup.
• Now heat oil for deep frying, drop jamuns in hot oil and fry on a medium heat till golden. Keep mixing this for even coloring.
• Now drain them and add to the syrup immediately. Let them soak for around one hour.Serve cold.

                                                                                   

Kneading the dough

                                                        

Make round balls for frying

        Note

• Mashing the sweet potatoes is the main step, you can mash them using hand or grate them using a fine grater.
• Add little maida if your mix is sticky, adding too much maida may turn out in making hard jamuns .
• You can enhance the taste of jamuns by adding rose water and saffron to the sugar syrup but it’s optional.

                                                                             

Fried balls ready to soak in sugar syrup

                             

        Happy cooking!

Chum Chum (Bengali Sweet)

                                                        

Chum Chum 

Chum chum  also known as chom chom or cham cham is one of the other Bengali delicacies apart from rasgulla, sandesh and rasmalai. Oval shaped chena  balls are cooked in sugar syrup just like the rasgulla.Then garnished in different ways.Few variations of the garnishings are to stuff with mawa/khoya or dunk them in rabri or just serve them with coconut garnish.

Unlike the rasgulla this is not served with sugar syrup, so the sugar syrup can be reused for other recipes like gulab jamuns. Commercially sold chum chum are colorful as food colors are used while preparing. Since I do not prefer colors, I have not used. If you want to make chum chum colorful, then you can add few drops of it while kneading the chena.

Once my husband’s friend had brought this bengali sweet in the office from Kaka halwai in pune; my hubby had liked its taste very much.Hubby has a sweet tooth and it was his demand to make this dessert.Today I had around a litre of milk extra in my fridge. I remembered this recipe and thought of giving it a try.I prepared this recipe for the first time and it was ultimate in taste and shape.

                                                           

Chena mixed with semolina

        Ingredients

        To make chena

• 1 litres or 4 cups full fat milk
• 2 to 4 tsp lemon juice or vinegar diluted with 4 tsp water
• Semolina (1 tsp)

                                                          

Oval chena balls

        For the sugar syrup 

• 1 ¼ cup sugar
• 3 ¼ cups of water
• ¼ tsp cardamom powder

                                                       

Chena balls cooking in sugar syrup

        For filling

• 4 tbsp mawa/khoya
• 1 tbsp sugar (powdered, adjust to suit your taste)
• Chopped dry fruits (1-2 tablespoon)
• Few strands of kesar
• Cardamom powder (1/4 tsp)  

                                                           

Ingredients to make  filling

        For garnishing

• Few pistachios and desiccated coconut.                                                                                             

                                                               

Khoya filling is ready

                                                   

        Method of preparation

• Boil milk on a medium flame. Add diluted lemon juice to the pot and stir. Use as needed until the milk curdles completely.
• Add ice cubes or ice cold water to the curdled milk. Drain it off to a muslin cloth.
• Rinse it under running water. Squeeze excess water from the chena.
• Hang it for about 1 hour.
• Knead it well for 3 to 4 minutes until smooth. Add semolina to kneaded chena .Make equal sized oval shaped balls.
• Make sugar syrup by adding sugar and water to a pot. Bring it to a boil. When it begins to boil, then add cardamom powder and cham cham balls.
• Cover and cook on a moderately high heat for 8 to 10 minutes.
• After a while, transfer the cham cham to a plate and cool completely.
• Slit them length wise using a knife (do not cut into half)
• Make mawa stuffing by mixing mawa with powdered sugar,kesar,chopped dry fruits and cardamom powder.
• Stuff the cham cham with this mawa mixture.Garnish the cham cham with pistachios and desiccated coconut.
• Serve chilled.                                                                                                                                       

  

  Slit the chum chum in the middle

      Note

• Do not boil the chum chum on a low flame, they may not puff up.
• Do not overcook; they can turn rubbery and hard.
• If you do not knead the chena properly,chums chum might break while cooking in the syrup.
• Filling of the chum chum can be personal choice.
• Some people also use kewda or rose flavor to sugar syrup in which chena balls are boiled.

        Happy Cooking !