Gulab Jamuns

I made Gulab Jamuns today all by myself. Quite an achievement I say. And a definite upgrade from cooking. Agreed this was ‘Instant Gulab Jamun’. Yet, man!! the amount of work you have to do is really laborious. Here I was assuming just because I can cook noodles, I can cook anything else that says ‘Instant’. Man was I mistaken or what ?
The Instructions on the pack was very simple really.

• Add 1/4 measure of water to 1 measure of mix and kneed the mix gently into a dough. Set aside for 5 min.
• Make small balls and fry in hot oil/ghee over a low flame until golden brown.
• Soak the Gulab Jamuns in hot sugar syrup until they completely absorb syrup and serve.
• Sugar Syrup: Add equal measure of sugar and water and boil for 15 min (this pack needs 1.2 kg of sugar.) Add rose essence or cardamom powder if desired.

(Yea, it had the same instructions in Hindi, Tamil and a couple of other languages that I am guessing were Telugu and Kannada.)

Part of the reason I even ventured out into making it was because the instructions sounded really simple. Bachelors beware. Don’t be tricked into that one. It’s never as easy as it’s printed especially if you have had no prior experience with cooking whatsoever.

So I started with the simple task of mixing 1/4 measure of water to 1 measure of mix. I tried to kneed it gently as the pack suggested and all I has was powder flying in all directions, and the water no where to be seen. I was sure I had made some mistake with the measuring. How on earth was I to kneed it into a dough it I just had powder. This is where I made the first mistake. I added a little more water than necessary I guess. I thought what harm could come from adding just a little water. I mean now I could mix the powder with the water, but whoa!! how do I make this into a dough ? This is where I am glad my mom intervened and said ‘I told you not to experiment. I was sure you would screw it up’and asked me to add more powder. (Since this was my experiment, I did not intend on using the entire pack. That was my 0th mistake but at-least it came to my aid with the 1st mistake.) Now after trying really hard, I actually did make it into a dough.

Next issue was rolling it into balls. How easy it sounds again. Ad there it was sticking onto my hands refusing to come away form my hands let alone be rolled. Again I managed this somehow after a long time trying.

The frying part was quite easily accomplished for I have experience with frying paneer, and even bread. (But my mom tells me the Jamuns weren’t cooked on the inside-which means I did not do this well either. )

The sugar syrup was what I royally screwed. First I thought I had done enough but the syrup wasn’t syrupy. Looks like I over compensated in keeping the burner switched on for a tad too long. It became almost solid. The Jamuns aren’t absorbing the syrub. My mom again helped me by asking me to pour some hot water in it and I was thankful she did.

Finally the Gulab Jamuns came out pretty decently. They were not as good as they should have been, but with instructions like those and a cook like me, they could have ended up disastrously.