Relish your much loved gulab jamuns by eating them out of a baked pastry katori filled with rich rabdi and topped with chopped pistachios.
Panjak Gupta's fascinating dessert Gulab Jamun In A Rabdi Katori will make your Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations sweeter.
Gupta, a Mumbai restaurateur, whose adoration for food came about as a child while watching his mom cook, has said that his favourite occupation is cooking, serving, cleaning, entertaining and creating more spaces for doing this.
Photographs: Kind courtesy Pankaj Gupta
Gulab Jamun In A Rabdi Katori
Serves: 6
Ingredients
For the gulab jamuns
- ¼ cup whole wheat flour
- ½ cup non-fat milk powder
- ¼ cup whole fat Greek yoghurt
- Milk
- Oil to fry the gulab jamuns
Method
- To make the dough, combine the milk powder, wheat flour, yoghurt in a bowl.
Knead.
Add just enough milk to make a medium-hard dough.
Rest it for 5 minutes and then divide the dough into 20 portions.
Gently roll each portion between your palms to make a smooth ball.
Place the balls on a plate and cover with a mildly damp and not too wet kitchen towel
- Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed kadhai over high heat.
Once the oil is hot, lower heat to medium.
Slip the balls into the hot oil from the side of the pan, one by one.
They will sink to the bottom of the pan, but do not try to move them.
Instead, gently shake the pan to keep the balls from browning on just one side.
After about 5 minutes, the balls will rise to the surface.
The gulab jamuns should rise slowly to the top if the temperature is just right.
Now gently and constantly flip to ensure even browning on all sides.
If the oil is too hot the gulab jamuns will break.
Adjust the temperature to ensure the gulab jamuns do not break or cook too quickly.
The balls must be fried very slowly over medium heat.
This will ensure complete cooking from inside and even browning.
When evenly browned, drain onto a tissue or paper towel-lined plate.
For the rabdi
Ingredients
- 1 l full-fat whole milk
- 8-10 tbsp (approximately ½ cup) jaggery powder or sugar
- 3-4 green elaichi or cardamom seeds crushed
- 3 tbsp blanched, chopped pistachios
- 3 tbsp blanched, chopped almonds
- Few strands kesar or saffron
Method
- Boil the milk in a saucepan over high heat. br />With the help of a flat spatula, scrape the cream or malai that sticks to the sides and add back to the milk.
Do not stir the milk.
Cook for at least half an hour or till the milk has thickened.
Add the crushed green cardamom seeds.
Lower the heat and let the milk boil again.
Once the milk has reduced to half, add the jaggery powder or sugar.
Take off heat and garnish with the chopped nuts.
For the pastry katori
Ingredients
- 700 gm maida or all-purpose flour
- 300 gm butter
- 250 gm honey
- 500 gm milk
- 250 gm custard powder
- 12 pieces gulab jamun
- 60 gm pistachios, chopped
- 400 gm rabdi
- 6 katori or bowl shaped moulds
Method
- Combine the maida, honey, butter and knead into dough.
Line the moulds with the dough by evenly and thinly patting it into the bottom and sides of the moulds.
Bake it at 180°C in the oven for 16 minutes.
Take it out of the oven and cool on a rack.
- For the stuffing, mix together the milk, custard powder, rabdi in a bowl.
Top it up with some of the chopped pistachio but reserve some pistachios for the garnish.
For the assembly
- To assemble, first place 2 gulab jamuns in the katori, then add some of the rabdi-custard-milk mixture.
- Repeat the process for all the katoris.
- Serve the katori on a dessert or quarter plate, and garnish it with 1-2 tsp rabdi and the chopped pistachios.
Pankaj's Note: If you would like to add the pastry lattice on the katori (please see the picture above), flatten the remaining pastry dough, cut it into diagonal strips, sprinkle crushed pistachios and then arrange on top of the the katori.
Bake at 180°C for 8 minutes.
Pankaj Gupta is the owner of Taftoon in BKC and OyeKake at Kala Ghoda, Mumbai.
