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Make Amriti at home

Staying home? Gather your friends around for this one

Amriti is a classic Bengali dessert. In fact, many prefer it to jalebis. Here’s how you can make a batch at home….

Ingredients for 24 amritis: 

2 cups urad dal

3 cups sugar

1 ½  cups water

½ tsp crushed cardamom

Orange food colouring: a teaspoon

Saffron: a few strands

Vegetable oil to fry

You will also need: 1 piping bag

Method: 

1. Soak the urad dal overnight and make a paste out of it, using as little water as you possibly can. The paste should be smooth and have no lumps in it when you touch it.
    
2. To make the sugar syrup, put the water to boil and then add the sugar into it. Add in orange food colouring and a few strands of saffron, along with the crushed cardamom. Let the mixture boil till it becomes a little thick, or till it forms two strands when you lightly insert two fingers. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice to make sure the sugar doesn’t crystallise. 
3. Whisk the urad dal mixture very well to incorporate air into it, it should be light enough so that it floats when you add a little bit in water to test the consistency.
    
4. Transfer the mixture into a piping bag. or a Ziploc pouch and cut a sliver off the edge.
    
5. Heat the oil on medium heat, pipe the mixture into a circle and then trace along that line with more circles to create the shape you want.
    
6. Fry till golden and instantly drench it in the warm sugar syrup so that the amriti absorbs it and takes on the golden orange colour. 

The amriti stays fresh for up to three days at room temperature in an air-tight container, or up to five days in the refrigerator. 

^{_{- Aatreyee Mohanta}}