Gulab Jamun and its Sweet Siblings
One of the states in India which is renowned for a variety of delectable sweets is West Bengal. Historically West Bengal was one of the important subas (provinces) of the Mughal Empire. As the empire began to crumble, the suba's Mughal provincial governors or the nawabs (rulers) of Bengal started to assert their independence and the Mughal authority remained only in name. Earlier, Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turko-Afghan military general founded the Khilji dynasty of Bengal. The Sultans of Delhi too from time to time asserted their imperial authority over Bengal through their appointed governors. Their reigns influenced the cuisine of the region. Gulab jamun is one very good example of how food conquers people far and near and for ages. In this blog post, I will primarily discuss this particular Indian dessert and sweets which are in some ways akin to it.
Gulab jamuns are fried round balls of khoya (milk solids) and chhena (Indian cottage cheese), soaked in sugar syrup. In Nepal, it is known as lal mohan while in Bangladesh, it is enjoyed as gulab jam. It is also relished in India's other neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and in Maldives, Fiji, Mauritius, Surinam and other such nations where Indians were taken there as indentured labourers during the British colonial period to work in plantations. It is believed that gulab jamun travelled to India from the Middle East. The word gulab is derived from two Persian terms, gul meaning flower and ab which means water whereas jamun in Hindi means black plum. Michael Krondl, a culinary writer, claims that gulab jamun originated from a Persian dessert consisting of fried dumplings dipped in rose water syrup and that it was introduced here after the advent of the Mughals in India.
Gul+ab = Gulab (Flower in the water)
Ibn Batuta, a Moroccan traveller who visited medieval India in his account Rihla makes reference to luqmat-al-qadi which is an Arabic dessert or lokma. The Arabic sweet has similarities to Indian gulab jamun. Luqmat-al-qadi (lit. judge's morsels) or lokma is also relished in various gulf countries and in Turkey and Egypt, which is fried sweet dough drenched in sugar syrup or honey and at times, sprinkled with cinnamon powder. In Greece and Cyprus, it is called loukoumades or lokmades. It is also enjoyed by Sephardic Jews or Sephardim who after being expelled from Spain, migrated to the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula as a result of which they have Middle Eastern influence on their cuisine which comprises of falafal, hummus, and lokma among others. Lokma forms an important part of their traditional Hanukkah delicacy, and it is known by various terms viz. bumuelo, bunuelo, burmuelo, bonuelo, bimuelo, etc.
You will also find a number of other desserts which bear similarities to gulab jamun in India, especially in the eastern parts of India, including West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar. They are:
Kala Jamun: To begin with, kalo jam or kala jamun can be said to be the closest kin of gulab jamun. It is also prepared from khoya, but it has a dark colour with some shades away from black since it is fried for a longer duration until it acquires a very deep rich crimson shade. However, as far as its shape, taste and preparation is considered it is very similar to gulab jamun.
Pantua: Then we have pantua which is a sweet dish that is made of chhena in eastern India, and this too can be regarded as one of the siblings of gulab jamun.
And there is one sweet named chhena jilipi which looks like jalebi but tastes like pantua. Chhena jilipi is famous in Odisha where it originated, and also in West Bengal and Bangladesh.
Nikuti: It is a sweet dish from the Burdwan region of West Bengal which is made of chhena or cottage cheese, sooji or semolina/ refined wheat flour and though it is given an elongated shape, it does not taste different from gulab jamun.
Langcha: Langcha, lemcha or lyancha is commonly eaten in West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam, Tripura and Bangladesh. It is made of flour and khoya. Like nikuti, it is also elongated in shape. Its place of origin is said to be Burdwan in West Bengal.
Ledikeni: Kolkata was founded by the British in the late seventeenth century. The British East India Company developed it as its capital and it remained the capital of British India till 1911 when the capital was shifted to Delhi, the erstwhile Mughal political seat of power. Kolkata was one of the most anglicized cities of British India. It is no surprise that Kolkata has a dessert which derives its name from the name of a British lady. Lady Kenny or ledikeni is named after Lady Charlotte Canning who was the wife of the Governor General, Lord Charles Canning. It is popular in West Bengal and Bangladesh. The primary ingredients used are flour and chhena.
Shor Bhaja: Shor bhaja is originally from Krishna Nagar, West Bengal. It is made of layers of malai (milk cream), maida and khoya, mixed and fried (bhaja means fried) and then soaked in chashni or sugar syrup. It has a little variation, nevertheless when you bite into it, it does remind you of gulab jamun.
Apart from these red coloured fried sweets, sweetened with sugar syrup, there is another extremely popular sweet dish of India called rasgulla which can be considered as a cousin of our gulab jamun. They can be spotted together in a bowl of desserts during wedding feasts or other such celebrations. Rasgulla and gulab jamun both are round balls of joy, bathed in chashni, complementing each other, yet the two are at variance in a number of ways. The former is an indigenous sweet while as we learn, the latter bears foreign influence. Like gulab jamun, rasgulla too has its sweet siblings of which I will discuss later. But as for now, I hope you are curious enough to meet the sugary and syrupy kins of gulab jamun.
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