Chef Ajay Thakur's yummy Jalebi Baby brings together two hard to resist summer delights -- jalebi and aamrakhand or mango shrikhand.

Jalebi Baby

Serves: 2

Ingredients

For the jalebi batter

• 100 gm maida or all-purpose flour
• 300 gm fresh mango puree
• 4 tsp yoghurt
• ½ tsp haldi or turmeric or few drops of yellow colour
• 50 gm ghee, to deep fry
• 100 ml warm water

For the sugar syrup

• 50 gm sugar
• 25 gm water
• Pinch kesar or saffron
• Pinch green elaichi or cardamom powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice, optional

For the aamrakhand mousse

• 35 gm whipping cream
• 5 gm mango shrikhand

To assemble

• 150 gm aamrakhand mousse. Recipe given below
• ½ vark or silver leaf
• 10 gm flaked or finely chopped pistachios to serve
• Chopped mango

Method

For the jalebi

• In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the jalebi batter, except the ghee, and whisk slowly, while adding the water.
  Keep stirring till a smooth batter forms.
  Set aside to ferment for 30 minutes.
  Once fermented, pour into a squeeze bottle with a narrow tip.
• Heat the ghee in a heavy-bottomed kadhai over medium heat.
  When the ghee is sufficiently hot, squeeze swirls of jalebi batter into it in batches.
  Fry for a few minutes until golden on both sides.
  Drain and transfer onto a paper towel or tissue-lined plate.

For the sugar syrup

• Ideally make the syrup when the jalebi batter is resting.
• To make the syrup, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan heat the sugar and the water over medium heat and keep stirring.
  When the sugar dissolves, add the saffron strands.
  Continue to boil until you achieve a one-thread syrup (please check the note below).
  Take off heat, add the cardamom powder and once the jalebis are is fried, quickly dip in batches in the sugar syrup.
  If jalebis are not ready, make sure to add 1 tsp lemon juice to the sugar syrup along with the cardamom powder so that it doesn't harden quickly.

For the aamrakhand mousse

• In a bowl mix mango shrikhand with the whipping cream.
  Keep aside.

To assemble

• Pour the aamrakhand mousse into a coupe glass (please see the picture above) or a dessert bowl.
  Place a crispy jalebi or two along with a few slices of chopped mango in each glass or bowl.
  Garnish with chopped pistachio and vark.

Note: A one-thread syrup is sugar syrup viscous enough to pass the one-thread test.
It is important to keep testing for consistency while the sugar syrup is boiling.
The test for this is: Dip a spatula, preferably wooden, into the boiling sugar syrup and take out.
Some syrup would have coated the spatula.
Let it cool.
Touch the cooled syrup with your forefinger. Some syrup will come onto your finger.
Touch that with your thumb and separate thumb from forefinger.
When one little continuous delicate thread is formed by the syrup, when the coated forefinger is pulled away from your thumb, you have one-thread consistency sugar syrup.

For a vegan version of this recipe, use vegan yoghurt in the jalebi batter and skip the aamrakhand mousse. Instead make aamrakhand out of vegan yoghurt and chopped mango pieces.

Chef Ajay Thakur is the corporate chef at Bayroute, a restaurant in Mumbai.

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