Jalebi

Crisp, tangy spirals of lightly fermented wheat-flour batter piped into hot ghee and plunged into saffron and cardamom syrup, eaten hot in Old Delhi

Origin: Chandni Chowk & Delhi, India

From the journey of Wheat.

A jalebi is a spiral of wheat-flour batter, lightly fermented until it is faintly sour, piped freehand into hot ghee, fried until crisp, and dropped straight into warm syrup scented with saffron and cardamom, so that the syrup fills its hollow tubes. It is eaten hot, in the morning with milk or rabri, at weddings and festivals, and from street stalls across North India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Its black gram cousin, imarti, is softer and thicker; a jalebi should shatter, then run with syrup. The sweet came from the west. Arabic cookery books from tenth-century Baghdad onward describe zalabiya, fritters of fermented batter soaked in syrup or honey, and the Persian zulbia is its descendant. In 1943 the Indologist P. K. Gode, working at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, traced the Indian record: a mention in the Priyamkarnrpakatha, a Jain work by Jinasura of about 1450, where jalebi is served at a merchant's meal, and a recipe in the Sanskrit cookery text Gunyagunabodhini, written before 1600. By then the Persian sweet had become thoroughly Indian, and Sanskrit gave it names of its own, kundalika and jalavallika. Delhi has a particular claim on it. In 1884 Lala Nem Chand Jain opened a jalebi shop at the corner of Dariba Kalan in Chandni Chowk, and the family still fries jalebis there, thick and dark and served straight from the pan; the shop is known simply as Old Famous Jalebi Wala. The fermentation is the point. A batter left overnight gives the jalebi its faint sourness against the sweet syrup, and its crispness, which a batter raised only with baking powder never quite matches.

Ingredients

Batter

150 g plain flour (maida)
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp plain yoghurt
160 ml lukewarm water, approximately
1 pinch saffron threads, soaked in 1 tbsp warm water, or a pinch of ground turmeric for colour

Syrup

300 g caster sugar
180 ml water
4 whole green cardamom pods, crushed
1 pinch saffron threads
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp rosewater (optional)

Frying

500 g ghee or neutral oil, for frying

Method

Whisk the flour, cornflour, yoghurt, and lukewarm water to a smooth, thick batter the consistency of double cream. Cover and leave in a warm place for 12 to 24 hours, until it smells sour and shows small bubbles.
Beat the fermented batter for two minutes and stir in the saffron water.
Make the syrup: dissolve the sugar in the water with the cardamom and saffron, boil for five to six minutes until slightly sticky, and stir in the lemon juice and rosewater. Keep it warm.
Pour the batter into a squeezy bottle with a narrow nozzle, a piping bag with a small plain tip, or a thick cloth with a hole about 3 mm across.
Heat the ghee in a wide, shallow pan to about 170 °C.
Pipe the batter into the ghee in tight spirals of two or three turns, starting from the outside and working inwards, and fry for about two minutes, turning once, until crisp and pale gold.
Lift out with a slotted spoon, drain for a few seconds, and drop into the warm syrup for 30 to 60 seconds, turning once. Lift out onto a plate.
Serve hot, on its own or with chilled rabri or a glass of warm milk.

Notes

The batter must be thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for a second before sinking. Too thin and the spirals flatten in the ghee; too thick and they will not pipe. Jalebi is at its best within minutes of frying. Leftovers can be re-crisped briefly in a hot oven. In Bangladesh and West Bengal the same sweet is jilapi, and in Nepal jeri.

The Gastrographer

Name: Jalebi
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 14 h
Yield: 20
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 150 g plain flour (maida); 1 tbsp cornflour; 2 tbsp plain yoghurt; 160 ml lukewarm water, approximately; 1 pinch saffron threads, soaked in 1 tbsp warm water, or a pinch of ground turmeric for colour; 300 g caster sugar; 180 ml water; 4 whole green cardamom pods, crushed; 1 pinch saffron threads; 1 tsp lemon juice; 1 tsp rosewater (optional); 500 g ghee or neutral oil, for frying

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control