On Bhai Photo (Bhaiya Doj) – we …. ie. Maa and i – made Elo-Jhelo. Didn’t get the time to write the days account and the recipe. i was being lazy – thought of writing it today – then tomorrow – then the day after tomorrow and actually that tomorrow didn’t come but that day arrived when our Honorable Prime Minister changed our life by announcing the demonetization of Rs. 500 and Rs 1000 note.

i was over joyed at first …. ( i still support this decision ) but after standing in queue for hours … i have to say that common man’s precious time and energy is wasted. All those people would encourage us to use digital mode of payment …but unfortunately my near by vegetable wala or the milk wala are yet not so upgraded Indians …. they want cash in exchange of goods. i had no choice than stand in that snake like queue that was winding up to 600 mt.long. That day i stood in the queue for 8 hours. It’s not a joke … i went to the bank for 2 days and both the days i stood in the queue for 7-8 hours. i still am not against the decision – but they (Govt.) could have done something that would have been more effective and less strained mentally and physically. Like my mom suggested : they could have supplied more Rs 100 note through ATM one month prior demonetization – because prior demonetization only Rs. 500 and Rs.1000 were what we used to get from the ATM. When we heard the news of  demonetization that evening we only has Rs. 300 at home.

It seems as if things were not well planned out – decisions were made in a hurry or maybe they didn’t know we have a more than huge population. The Government could have planed it out better … i m sure they could have. Well i can continue endlessly on this matter …  hope with time things will get smoother and queue shorter !!

For now let’s get back to my sweet Elo-Jhelo. It’s a sweet pastry made from white flour ie. all purpose flour. i am sure we can make Elo-Jhelo from whole wheat flour but i wonder would it taste that good. i know white flour is not healthy but eating sweets made of white flour once in a while won’t be very harmful. Everybody who ate my Elo-Jhelo liked it a lot.

i never knew We …. meaning Bengalis have this sweet pastry. i always knew Bengali sweets are made of chaana. Last year when i went to Kolkata, my auntie make these Elo-Jhelo. i wonder why they are called Elo-Jhelo. Whereas they can easily be called Elo-Melo – which means not in order. That’s what it looks like. No matter what they’re called but they looked crisp and delicately gorgeous and tasted delicious too. i really like its shape and design.  The recipe too is very simple …. what i additionally did was sprinkled roasted sesame seeds on it … they originally looked very plain to me.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

500 gm White flour (all purpose flour) – 6-7 tbsp Ghee (clarified butter) – 1/4 tsp of salt – 1 cup whole milk (room temp.) – cooking oil (for frying) – 2 tbsp sesame seeds (roasted).

For the syrup:

1 cup water – 2 cup sugar – 1 tsp lemon juice.

Method:

In a large bowel add white flour salt and Ghee. Rub them together – so that all the ghee get soaked in the flour. Gradually add milk and knead the flour into a dough. ( The dough shouldn’t be very soft neither to hard). Cover the dough with wet towel for 30 mins.

After 30 mins. … take small amount of dough and make a smooth ball. With the help of a rolling pin – make a flat round disc. With a knife – make some horizontal straight cuts at 1/2 inch distance on the flat round disc.

Now roll the round disc horizontally parallel to the cuts (made by the knife). As you roll the disc – push the edges down and seal them – so when these rolled disc are fried – they don’t open up.

(It’s good if two people make Elo-Jhelo – one person making them another deep frying them)

Now  …  heat oil in a kadai. Keep the heat on low to medium. Fry the Elo-Jhole one by one. ( if the kadai is big enough to fry 3 to 4 Elo-Jhelo – then do so …. save energy and time).

Fry them till they turn slight golden brown ( as these are make of white flour … they would remain whitish even when they are cooked so slight golden brown is fine).

Take it out and let it cool on a kitchen towel.

In a pan pour water and sugar. Stir till the sugar dissolve. ( One can add cardamom powder or crushed cardamom pod).  Add the lemon juice – it helps to make the syrup glossy. Let it simmer till the syrup is thickened a bit …. if you take a little bit of the syrup in your index finger and thumb. Pinched it. Single thread is form. ( If not cook it for another minute or two). Switch off the heat. Let it cool a bit.

Now ….  dip the cool Elo-Jhelo in the sugar syrup. Coat the Elo-Jhlo nicely.Take it out and place it on a plate. Sprinkle roasted white sesame seeds on it. Let it dry completely. Do the same with rest of the Elo-Jhlo.

i used brown sugar instead of white and so this nice brown color !

Can store them in any air-tight jar upto 4 weeks …. but believe me it will finish in 4 days if not 4 hours !!