maysore pak is one of the most favored sweets in south india. Let us try and make this wonderful sweet for the pleasure of the Lord.
ingredients
besan (chickpea flour) - 1 cup
sugar - 1 cup
ghee - 1 cup
water 1/4 cup
method:
on medium flame, fry the chickpea flour, till it turns light brown and a wonderful aroma starts. remove from fire and shift the flour onto a dry plate. In the same shallow pan add water and sugar and keep stiring till all the sugar gets dissolved and u will see some bubbles and froth in the sugar syrup. at this point add the fried basen slowly with one hand while continually stiring the sugar syrup with another hand. Add the complete mixture , a thick paste like mixture is formed.
add one table spoon of ghee and keep stiring, once the ghee is absorbed by the mixture add another table spoon of ghee, like wise add all the ghee and keep stiring. Be very observant, at one point you will notice that the mixture is turning into fine fibrous mixture and the ghee is started to leave the corners of the pane.
immediately shift the mixture into a plate with little ghee coated on it. Tap the plate to settle the mixture. Immediately cut the mixture into diamond shape with the help of knife, leave it to cool, once cooled, take out the sweet cubes slowly and offer it to Lord.
Replies
Thanks for sharing this recipe. My mom prepares this at home and we do not fry the besan. Instead, she heats the ghee in a pan and prepares the sugar syrup of one thread consistency. Then we go on adding a handful of besan and hot ghee into the boiling syrup and keep on stirring. When every thing has gone into the syrup and the mixture starts to bubble and leave the edge we transfer it to the plate.
This will be slightly harder when cooled. If some one wants more softer version and tastier too, they can add some koya or mava to the mixture. Please make sure the mava is fresh or else the colour will turn dark and will not taste good.
The beauty of this sweet is the gradient in the colour of each of the piece. It will be deep yellow on the top and bottom and dark brown in the center. This happens if the plate in which we put the sweet is deep enough. Traditionally, the plate would be 2 inches deep minimum which gives good colour gradient.
Hari bol!!!
Hare Krishna prabhuji,
nice to know one more variety of mysore pak, next time i will try the way you have mentioned, i am sure it will be wonderful. These traditional sweets have their typical way of preparing that can differ sometime from home to home, but as you said eventually the beauty is the gradient in the colour of each of the piece, my mother would always judge our sweet by the colour itself even before tasting.
hari bol