Khoya Jamun | கோவா ஜாமுன் | Kova Jamun

Khoya Jamun is a variation from the regular gulab jamuns. These soft sugar syrup soaked balls are a treat always. If you have khoya handy, you can do this in a jiffy. It feels great to try it from scratch than using ready made powder available in the market. Khoya is basically dried evaporated milk, they are obtained by continuously cooking the milk on a low flame. There are so many variations in preparing gulab Jamuns.

I was not planning to prepare jamuns until I saw my friend Vidhya's Jamun pics in Fb. I didnot have Jamun mix ready,  my mom suggested me to try with Kova (thickened milk). So decided to give a try ! I agree Kova Jamuns tastes good than the normal ones. 

My mom will not allow me to enter kitchen while making deep-fried items. Only after marriage, I started my cooking experiments. This is my first attempt on making Jamuns. Mom & my friend Lavanya gave me tips, it came out perfect and I felt very happy :) 

Ingredients :-
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Khoya / Kova	1 cup
All-purpose flour / Maida	3 tbsp
Sugar	1½ cup
Water	1½ cup
Cooking Soda	1/8 tsp
Cardamom powder	½ tsp
Saffron	few strands
Ghee / Oil	For deep frying
Almonds & Pistachios	Garnishing (optional)

Method :-
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1). Crumble the kova completely. Pass it through a sieve so that it is finely crumbled to avoid lumps. Measure khoya and mix it along with all-purpose flour and cooking soda in a bowl.

2). Add water little by little and form a smooth dough without any cracks. Divide the dough into equal portions and roll them into smooth round balls.

3). Preparing Sugar Syrup :- In a wide pan, mix the water, sugar, cardamom and saffron. Boil till the sugar gets dissolved and reaches syrup consistency (10 minutes). Then keep it in a very low flame till you finish deep-frying all the Jamuns, it helps to keep the syrup warm.

4). In a low flame, heat oil/ghee for deep frying (Oil should not smoke). Add the balls (few at a time) and fry them stirring often to get even color. When they become golden, remove and place it on the paper towel.

5). Transfer the Jamuns to the warm sugar syrup. Let them soak in the sugar syrup for at-least 2 hours. Repeat this till all the dumplings are cooked and added to the syrup. 

Garnish with almonds and pistachios ! Serve the jamuns warm/chill with the sugar-syrup and Icecream!

Notes :-   
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# Do not fry it on high heat as the Jamuns will burn on the outside and remain raw inside! 
# Make small balls as they will become large while deep frying and larger when soaked in sugar syrup. 
# Make sure there are no cracks in the balls, else they will break while frying in the oil.
# Too much baking soda will cause the gulab jamuns to get too soft or they will break apart when frying.
# Add flavored essence for nice flavor. Stir in the sugar syrup before adding the fried Jamuns.  
# Saffron is optional, but it adds a good texture to the syrup.
# Don't crowd the pan while deep frying. Just fry 2-3 depending on the pan size.
# You can also try the same recipe with Jamun mix, milk powder and even maida/all-purpose flour. 
# The only difference between Makkan Peda and this Kova Jamun is the stuffed nuts in the middle. As this was my first attempt I didn't wanna try !

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Click here for more :- Festival Recipes
Click here for more :- Sweets Recipes
Click here for more :- Diwali Recipes     

     Cheers,