Ghevar- India #80

Ghevar- India #80

Ghevar, aka Honeycomb dessert, is an easy dessert specially made on festivals in rainy season like the Rakhsha Bandhan. The reason it is made only during the rainy season is that a degree of moisture is necessary. It is a round donut shaped sweet, which is made with flour, ghee and milk. Then it is deep fried in oil. Best served with Cinnamon Spiced Orange Iced Tea.
Makes 2 servings.

Ingredients:                                  

1-1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. Ghee, more for frying
1/2 c. milk
1-1/2 c. water
1 tsp. turmeric powder

Sugar Syrup:

1-1/2 c. sugar
1 c. water

1. Dough: Pour ghee and cold milk in a bowl and whisk it well. Blend it till ghee and milk emulsify into a smooth mixture and do not separate.
2. Sift the flour and add into the milk mixture, whisk. Make sure there are no lumps and batter is smooth.
3. Add water a little at a time. Mix into a smooth consistency.
4. Add turmeric powder and mix it well.
5. The consistency of the batter should be one string--dripping from a spoon it should fall like a string.
6. Heat ghee in a deep frying pan on high heat until the ghee gets very hot.  The quantity of ghee should be half of the density of the vessel. Check temperature by dropping a small amount of the batter. It should immediately come to the surface.
7. Pour batter, in one continuous thin stream, in the center of the pan. Approximately 2 T.
   
8. Bubbles will start spluttering all over the surface of the oil.  Let the foam settle down.  If the center point is totally covered, use a round wooden handled spoon to make a hole in the center. Keep on pouring the batter. It takes 1-2mins. between pourings.
9. Turn heat to low. Let it fry until it turns light brown.
10. Place on a plate lined with a paper towel.
11. Sugar Syrup: Add water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to boil, occasionally stirring. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking 5-6 mins. until it has a one-string consistency and sticky when cooled.
12. Dip the ghevar into the syrup for 1-2mins. Remove and place on a plate and tilt it so that excess syrup gets drained.
13. Garnish with nuts. 

Results: Oh dear! Making the dough was easy. I bought ghee, which is rather expensive. I started by making small ghevars. I decided they were too

small, big mistake. The large ones were very hard to flip, partly because I was making them in a skillet instead of a deep fryer. It would have taken an awful lot of ghee to fry them and would have been too expensive. The pictures say it all. I did manage to make one acceptable ghevar, which was very good.  The others I threw away.

Bottom Line: Ghevars are very good. The nuts really make them tasty. However, they need to be eaten right away. The second day it was mushy. I certainly enjoyed learning about them. 

Please share this blog with people who make ghevars and would be impressed that I even tried to make them, or anyone else you can think of. Thanks.