Nanda Sahadeo's

Gulgula Recipe.

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Gulgula is another sweet that came across the Kala Pani (Black water/Ocean), with our ancestors.

I was researching its origins and found that while it is popular throughout India, it is traditionally from Orrisa, U.P and Goa.

This is my Mom's recipe. As a child, she remembers her Mother, my Nani making large batches of this for Holi/Phagwah to serve when Nana and his brothers and other relatives sang Chowtaal. Chowtaal is a group singing done only for Holi. There are two groups that sing. They sit opposite each other and its a friendly kind of competition. One side leads in the first set of singing then they switch. The singers also "clap" jhanj/jaal/brass cymbals as they sing. The dholak player is most important as this sets the tempo for the singing. It starts slow and then the speed is doubled then doubled again. The beat played is 12 beats,hence the name Chautaal which literally means 12 beats. It is quite vigourous singing and by the time they are done, the singers are quite hungry.

Mom also makes this sweet for Sri Ram Navmi, the appearance day of Sri Ram.

Mom makes hers without bananas. I grew up eating only hers and they are quite delicious. She makes them really soft on the insides, crunchy on the outsides, yet they are spongy at the same time. Many calls Gulgula, the Indian donut and this is an almost true description. It can also be served the same way as donuts, sprinkled with powdered sugar or dipped in chocolate or icing sugar frosting.

Many people add bananas to their batter and have seen some in India using even pumpkin. Mom's recipe has yeast while many from Guyana and Trinidad do not add this. Yeast gives it the spongy texture and a little bit of sourness. The Indian recipes have dahi/yoghurt instead.

Adding bananas, apparently, was done to "stretch" the batter. In the time of our Ancestors, things were hard to come by and they had to make the most of whatever they had. I never made it with bananas and never even had them. Today , I added 1/2 of a banana to 1/4 of my batter. The only difference I found was in the texture of the gulgulas. The bananas made them more dense and less spongy inside. My choice is the one without bananas but its up to ones taste.

Instead of using just all purpose white flour, you can mix it with one cup whole wheat and one cup all purpose flour. It will be less fluffy but not too much of a difference in taste. The amount of sugar can be adjusted to lesser or more depending on your taste too. I use Demerara brown sugar but you can use granulated/white sugar. The sweetness depends totally on your choice. I do not like mine overtly sweet hence the amount used below.

Ingredients:

Step One....

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar for yeast

1/4 cup water that is just slightly warm.

Step Two:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoons nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup warm milk

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup dried fruits

Oil for deep frying.

Method:

1. Add the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in a cup and stir to incorporate.

2. Add 1/4 cup warm water to the yeast mixture and stir until fully incorporated.

3. Set aside in a warm place to rise.

4. Place the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and sugar in a deep bowl.

5.Add dried fruits then stir with a fork or mix with fingers to full incorporate.

6. Add the yeast mixture and mix again.

7. Add first the milk and mix.

8. The add the water.

The batter must be like a thick pancake batter and not runny. It must plop down from the spoon. If it is too runny, it won't hold its round shape when you fry it.

9. Stir/beat the batter for 2 mins, Mom says this makes it fluffy. Then cover the bowl with cling wrap and set it aside in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.

10. Heat cooking oil in a deep frying pan or a kahari. ( I used a karahi made in Guyana). The oil must be hot but not smoking, drop a little bit of the batter into the oil and if it sinks then floats right back up, the oil is ready.

( Just in case you are wondering....Mom made ghee in the karahi today and I took the same karahi and fried my Gulgula today. The brown spots on the karahi is the sediments that got stuck there. And the colour of the ghee changed and got brown when I added the cooking oil. It did not alter the taste of my Gulgulas at all.)

11 Turn down the flame to medium as you need for the gulgula to cook through..Stir/beat the batter for a minute and then drop by teaspoonful into the hot oil.

It will look elongated but eventually it comes out round shaped.

12. If you can drop the batter by hand ( like when making pholouri), scoop a handful of the batter in your hands and then drop a little bit at a time into the hot oil.

13. As soon as they float up, keep turning them. This is to make sure that they brown evenly. One of the most annoying thing when deep frying is that many times they only brown on one side.