Elo Jhelo ( Bengali Fried Pastry Dipped in sugar syrup )

Happy festive season to all of my Indian friends. Hope you all had great time with friends and family, taken lots of pictures with them. My today’s recipe is a traditional Bengali sweet or snack, generally served during festivals like Durga Puja and Bijaya Dashami (the day when rest of the India celebrates Dussehra). It’s called Elo Jhelo which is very old school traditional Bengali sweet. It is a sweet pastry, made of all purpose flour, vegetable oil and ghee. I have seen my grandmother making this sweet for our joint family and used to greet her guests with this sweet. While I am thousands of miles away from my root and culture and miss home in the festive seasons, what else I can do other than recreating what we used to eat in our back home.

The good thing about Elo Jhelo is that they are not overly sweet but delicious in every bite. On the other hand, it’s a great fun making this dessert. The dough is first prepared, made into small balls. Then they are rolled like a luchi or puri. With a sharp knife, make 5-6 slits vertically across the surface of the rolled dough. Then fold over and over until it gets all overlapped. After this step, it is deep fried until it becomes crispy and then get dipped into the sugar syrup. When you read this process it may sound difficult, but don't hesitate to try it out. This was also my first attempt but the result exceeded my expectation J

Recipe of Elo Jhelo ( Fried Pastry ) : for 10 to 12 pieces 

Ingredients :

For Dough : 

All purpose Flour ( Moida ) : 4 cups ( approximately 500 g ) 
Salt : a pinch 
Nigella seeds : 1 teaspoon 
Vegetable oil or ghee : half cup 
Water : little less than 1 cup

For Sugar Syrup : 

Sugar : 1 cup 
Water : 1 and 1/2 cups 
Cardamoms : 4-5, crushed 
Lime juice or vinegar : 1 teaspoon 

Oil  : for deep frying 


Method :

1 : Take a big bowl, add flour, salt and nigella seeds. Mix it well, now add the oil or ghee to it. Again mix it well. Slowly add water to the flour very little at a time. Add water and knead it for about 5 to 6 minutes until it becomes smooth. The dough will be soft but firm. Once it is done, cover it with wet kitchen towel and set it aside for half an hour. 


2. Now divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Make it a perfect smooth surfaced round ball. Roll out each ball with rolling pin into a thin circle of about 3 inches like puri or luchi. With a sharp knife make 4 to 5 slits vertically on it by leaving about 1/2 inch space at the ends. Hold the end parts together and start rolling the pastry carefully until it gets all overlapped. Slightly twist the ends . Do the same process for the remaining balls.


3. Take a deep frying pan and heat oil on medium high heat. When smoke comes up, lower the flame and fry the Elo Jhelo in small batches till they are golden brown on both sides. Take out from oil and let it cool down first. 

4. Now  take a pan, add sugar and water and boil it. Add crushed cardamoms and vinegar to the syrup. Let it boil for 5 to 7 minutes. Add the fried Elo Jhelo in the sugar syrup. Mix them to coat with syrup. Take it out from the syrup and place it on serving plate.