Ghevar

The batter is poured into hot ghee and sets as a honeycomb disc.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

• 250 g maida, plain flour
• 100 g ghee, for the batter
• 100 ml milk
• 700 ml iced water
• 400 g sugar
• 200 ml water, for the syrup
• a pinch of saffron
• 40 g pistachios and almonds, slivered
• ghee for deep frying

Method

1. THE BATTER IS POURED INTO HOT GHEE AND SETS AS A HONEYCOMB DISC. Its article says it in one line: flour, ghee, milk and water are mixed to a batter, the batter is POURED IN GHEE in a disc shape, and it fries to a golden HONEYCOMB-LIKE texture. Nothing is shaped by hand. The holes are made by thin batter hitting very hot fat from a height, so that the water in it flashes to steam and blows the structure open as the flour sets. Get the batter or the heat wrong and you get a solid pancake, which is a different thing entirely.
2. THE GHEE IS BEATEN INTO THE FLOUR WITH ICE FIRST. A hundred grams of ghee whipped with a lump of ice until it is white and creamy, then the flour, then the milk, then the iced water. Cold is what keeps the fat in suspension instead of melting into the batter.
3. THE WATER IS ICED AND THERE IS A LOT OF IT. Seven hundred millilitres to two hundred and fifty grams of flour. The batter should be as thin as milk and it will look far too thin to work.
4. THE PAN IS NARROW AND DEEP, AND THE FAT IS FIERCE. A tall narrow pan half full of ghee, as hot as it will go without smoking. A wide shallow pan cannot hold the disc together.
5. IT IS POURED FROM HEIGHT, IN A THIN STREAM, INTO THE CENTRE. A ladleful at a time from a foot above the pan, always into the same spot. It froths violently; wait for the froth to fall before the next pour.
6. SIX OR SEVEN POURS BUILD ONE DISC. Each one lands on the last and welds to it, and the hole in the middle appears on its own.
7. IT IS LIFTED WITH A SKEWER THROUGH THE MIDDLE. Through the central hole, and drained standing on edge. Lifted flat it breaks under its own weight.
8. THE SYRUP IS POURED OVER, NOT SOAKED INTO. A one-thread syrup with the saffron, spooned over the hot disc so it runs into the honeycomb. Dunked, it collapses.
9. ITS ARTICLE NAMES THE VERSIONS AND THE TOPPINGS. Plain, mawa and malai; chhena ghevar; topped with saffron, spices and nuts, or with rabri over it.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes