Ghevar

Ghewar / Ghever or honey comb dessert is a Indian delicacy from the Rajasthani cuisine.  Is mainly  prepared during the festival season. Pouring the batter in hot ghee is the tricky part to get the correct texture to the dessert. 

 
Total time: 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 50 minutes to 1 hour Makes 4 nos for above size 

Ingredients:  

For Batter:

Method  1

• 5 tbsp maida /All Purpose Flour
• Water: as required to make a thin batter.
• Ghee/ Clarified Butter: 2 1/2 tsp
• Cardamon a pinch (optional)

Method 2

• 1  1/2 cup maida / all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 1/4 cup milk @ room temperature
  3/4 cup water if required you can add more to make a thin batter ( I added extra 3/4 cup water)
• A pinch of cardamon 

For frying :

• Ghee or refined oil or olive oil 

For syrup:

• 1  cup sugar
• 1 / 2 cup water
• Saffron strands few

For  Kesar Rabdi:

• 3 cups whole milk
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2tsp cardamom powder (crushed, if powder not available)
  2 tsp pistachios , crushed 
• 1/2 tsp saffron strands

For garnishing

• Shopped almonds and pistachios
• Silver Varak (optional)
  Few coloured shredded coconut
• Saffron strands few

  

 

Preparation:

For  Batter (Method 1):

• Sift the flour, and keep it aside.
• Take ghee and  sifted flour in a large bowl and mix them well.
• Add maida to it slowly, and keep mixing  softly till they nice ans fluffy  in texture,. in this stage if you want to add color to your ghevar's  you can soak the saffron strand in water or milk and add to the batter. I did add the saffron stands soaked in the milk .
• Now add water to this dough gradually, and not in one shot. Pour in a little water and mix with the dough; be careful that there are no lumps formed. Keep on adding water slowly, and make a smooth, lump free batter. 

Batter (Method 2):

• Take milk  and ghee and mix (whip) nicely for 2-3 minutes.
• Now, add sifted maida and mix well till there are no lumps.
• Add water little by little and mix it well into a smooth consistency. If you take in a spoon and try to 3drop on a plate, it should be thin (check my pics for consistency )

Cooking:

 














For  Ghevar: (Frying process is same for both the methods of batter preparation )

• Take a round deep and flat bottomed vessel and fill more than half of it with ghee. Heat it on high flame till the ghee gets really hot. 
• Check the correct temperature by dropping a small portion of the batter and see if it immediately comes up, and doesn't stick to the bottom.
• Once the ghee is hot, take ladle full of  batter and pour it in the middle of the vessel in a thin stream from considerable height and be careful of oil or ghee as there is a chances to splatter out.
• After pouring ladle full batter, wait for a few seconds till the bubbles settles and then pour the second batch.

• Repeat the same for 3-4 times depending on  the size of ghevar, you wish. ( when pouring the batter into the center of pot, it spreads around the corner and lift up in the ghee. Keep on increasing the center space by using that skewer after the batter has settled).
• Let this disc go golden brown on medium flame. The sides will be slightly more golden. 
• Once it is properly fried, take it out very carefully by inserting that thin skewer in the middle hole and lifting the whole ghevar with it.
• Keep the ghevar slightly tilted on a plate to remove excess oil.

For sugar syrup:

• Mix sugar and water together in a pan, heat the same in high heat and bring it to boil.
• When syrup is  boiling, reduce the heat and continue to cook it for 5-6 minutes till it reaches one- string syrup or sugar thermometer should read 218deg F or if  we drop sugar syrup on a plate, it will stand like a pearl and it should not run.
• At this stage remove the syrup from heat, add saffron. keep it aside.

 Coating ghewar with Sugar syrup.

• Dip ghewar in sugar syrup for few seconds and drain the excess amount. Let it dry for one hour.
• For mini ghewar, arrange the ghewar on the plate and gently pour little syrup on it.
• Again keep them tilted in a plate to remove excess syrup.Let them dry in open air for about 1 hour or
• Store them in closed containers and refrigerate for further use. 

For Kesar Rabdi:

• When milk reduced to half of its original quantity. Add the condensed milk to this mixture and bring it to a boil. Stir continuously.
• Now heat the milk on low heat and stir it frequently.   
• When mixture thickens, turn off the heat and add the cardamom powder, saffron strands and 1 tsp of crushed pistachios / almond, mix them well. Allow it to cool.

Serving ghewar: 

• Top the ghevar with rabdi or with fresh khoya,  nuts and serve immediately.