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Singori

A cone of sweetened khoya wrapped in a maalu leaf, which gives it its shape and its scent.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (khoa).

Ingredients

Method

  1. A CONE OF SWEETENED KHOYA WRAPPED IN A MAALU LEAF, WHICH GIVES IT ITS SHAPE AND ITS SCENT. Its article builds the whole sweet from that one act: singori is prepared FROM SWEETENED KHOYA (REDUCED MILK SOLIDS), SHAPED INTO A SMALL CONE AND WRAPPED IN THE AROMATIC MAALU LEAF, and THE LEAF WRAPPING GIVES THE SWEET ITS CHARACTERISTIC CONICAL FORM AND CONTRIBUTES A DISTINCTIVE AROMA AND FLAVOUR. The leaf is not packaging. It is the cone mould and the flavouring at once.
  2. TWO SOURCES DISAGREE ABOUT THE LEAF AND BOTH ARE WORTH KNOWING. Singori's own article names the maalu leaf and gives it as Bauhinia variegata. Bal mithai's article, describing this same sweet as its neighbour, calls it ANOTHER PREPARATION OF FLAVOURED KHOYA THAT COMES WRAPPED IN OAK LEAVES. This follows the dish's own article. A large fresh bay leaf is the easiest thing to find that behaves the same way and smells of something.
  3. THE FILLING IS KHOA AND SUGAR AND VERY LITTLE ELSE. Warm the khoa gently with the sugar until the sugar has gone, two or three minutes, then take it off. It should stay soft enough to shape, which means stopping well short of a fudge.
  4. CARDAMOM AND COCONUT ARE RESTRAINED ON PURPOSE. The sweet is there to taste of milk and leaf. Half a teaspoon and thirty grams in four hundred is enough to notice and not enough to cover anything.
  5. COOL IT UNTIL IT HOLDS A SHAPE. Twenty minutes. Warm khoya will not sit in a cone.
  6. SOFTEN EACH LEAF OVER A FLAME FOR A FEW SECONDS. It goes from stiff to pliable and glossy. A dry leaf cracks along the fold and the cone opens.
  7. ROLL THE LEAF INTO A CONE AND FILL IT. Overlap one edge over the other, hold the point, and spoon fifty grams in. Fold the top over to close it. Its article's other recorded shape is a chilam, a smoking pipe, from a 2007 memoir of Tehri -- the same cone seen from a different angle.
  8. LEAVE THEM WRAPPED FOR AN HOUR BEFORE EATING, AND EAT THEM OUT OF THE LEAF. That hour is when the scent transfers, which is the only reason any of this is done. The leaf is not eaten.

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