Chandrakala making is an art - This is a time-taking recipe, so please be patient

Chandrakala making is an art - This is a time-taking recipe, so please be patient . Chandrakala is a traditional North Indian dessert.

Ingredients For stuffing

Khoya/Mawa 250 gms
Semolina 2 tbsp
Chiraunji 2 tbsp (This is a small round shaped nut, available in Indian Stores)
Grated coconut 50 gms
Green cardamoms 5-6
Saffron threads 7-8
Sugar 200 gms
Ghee 1tbsp

Ingredients for Dough

All purpose flour 2 cup
Pure ghee 6 tbsp
Water to make dough

Ingredients For Sugar Syrup

Sugar 1 cup
Water about 3/4 cup
Ground cardamoms ¼ tsp
Saffron threads 5-6
Some other stuff

Ghee / vegetable oil for deep frying
Flour and water paste for sealing the sides of chandrakala (take 1 tsp flour and 2 tsps of water, mix well)
Slivered pistachio for garnishing

Method of preparation for Stuffing:

Remove the green skin of the cardamoms and grind the seeds.
In a wok, heat ghee.

Fry semolina for 2-3 minutes, or until it gets pink and aromatic.

Now add grated coconut and fry for a minute.

Now add Khoya/mawa and fry again for a few (3-4) minutes. Turn off the heat and let the mawa cool down.

When fried khoya is still a little lukewarm but not hot, add sugar, chiraunji, and green cardamoms. Crush saffron threads in between your fingers and add in the khoya mix. Mix all the ingredients well.
Mawa/ Khoya filling is ready; keep aside.

Method of preparation for Sugar syrup:

In a pan, boil sugar and water to make sugar syrup. After the first boil, reduce the heat and let the syrup boil for 7-8 minutes. We need one string sugar syrup for this delicacy. One string syrup means that you take a drop of syrup between your two fingers and then stretch the fingers - if the syrup that sticks between the two fingers is making one threads (or strings).Turn off the heat.

Add grounded cardamoms and saffron threads in the sugar syrup. Keep aside.

Method of preparation for Dough:

In a bowl take all purpose flour (maida) and ghee. Mix the ghee in the flour.

Add a little water at a time and knead a stiff dough. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and set aside for about 20-30 minutes.
Divide the dough into 40 round portions. Smoothen them.

Roll some balls into a round of about 1½-2 inch disc. Cover the rolled discs with a damp cotton cloth.

Take a rolled disc and apply a fine layer of flour water paste in the sides of circle.

Put 1 big spoon filling in the center of the rolled disc.

Put another rolled disc on the top of this disc+filling base. Press the sides to seal the edges.

You can make some designs on the sealed edges manually. You can also roll a designer spoon or use molds to give the edges a design.

Repeat the process with all the balls. Cover a damp cloth on the rolled and ready to fry chandrakalas so that they do not dry up.

Heat ghee (clarified butter)/ oil in a wok on low heat. We have to deep fry the chandraklas so fill ghee to about 1½ inch deep in the wok.

When ghee is warm but not hot, gently drop the chandraklas in the ghee. After about 3-4 minutes change the sides of the chandraklas. Fry chandraklas till they get pinkish. It takes about 15-20 minutes to fry each round of chandraklas.

Set kitchen paper in a plate. Take out Chandrakalas and put them on kitchen paper.

Delicious chandrakalas are ready. You can serve them as-is or they can be stored in airtight containers for a couple of weeks.

Chandrakala soaked in Sugar Syrup:

Chandrakalas are usually soaked in sugar syrup. In order to do that, warm up the already prepared sugar syrup. Put chandrakalas in the sugar syrup and coat them well.

Take the chandrakalas out. Put it in the serving dish. Garnish with slivered pistachio. Serve delicious chandrakalas.

Tips

Keep all the dough balls, rolled balls, and mawa filled chandrakalas covered with damp cloth until you are ready to fry them.

The stuffing can be made in advance and you can use it later as needed.