Badhusha | Sweet

This week I have chosen festival recipes. There are many festivals in the months of March and April. We have all the respective state's new year festival like ugadhi, gudi padwa, vishu etc.. The recipe I am presenting today can be prepared for any occassion. Its actually quite easy, just that I haven't tried it until now. So this year I celebrated Holi with this sweet.

I am starting this week's BM with Badhusha as it is called in South India or Balushahi as called in North India. My mom has never prepared this sweet at home, but I have tasted this in many of my friends place. I searched many blogs and saw many videos before attempting this. But I was successfully able to shape the badhushas. Not bad for a first attempt I say.

Ingredients

Maida - 1 & 1/2 cup

Butter - 1/4 cup

Oil - 1/8 cup

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Curd - 1 & 1/2 tsp

Cooking soda/sodium bi carbonate - 2 pinches

Water - 1/4 cup (approx.)

Oil - for deep frying

For the sugar syrup

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Water - Just to immerse the sugar

Elachi powder - 2 pinches

Saffron - Optional,A pinch

Lemon Juice - 1 tsp

Method:

• Melt butter and add oil, sugar, curd and sodium-bi-carbonate to it and use a whisk to mix well,to make it almost frothy. Add the flour to it.
• Mix well to make it crumbly. Add water little by little to make it dough,
• Make it to a smooth dough without any cracks.
• Then make small lemon size balls out of it.
• Now take a ball and pinch the edges and fold it inwards to make rims decoratively as shown in the picture.  Repeat to finish everything and keep covered.
• Meanwhile add sugar to a pan and just add water to immerse it and boil till one string consistency ,i.e; if you pour in little water,it should not dissolve and it should lay a fine thread 
• One more important point is not to keep stirring the syrup as stirring will make the syrup crystallize. Add saffron, elachi if desired and squeeze the lemon juice lastly. Again lemon juice is added to stop the syrup from crystallizing.
• Heat oil just enough, check it by adding a pinch of batter, if it rises immediately,then its just right. Don't let the oil fume at any point.
• Add some five badushas, we prepared, carefully in to the oil. Remove the vessel/kadai from fire and let it get cooked in the pre heated oil. Approximately it wud take 5 mins.
• At one stage the badushas float, then again keep the kadai on fire and cook in medium-low flame, adjust heat at the end to make it golden brown, for me it took around 5-8 mins.
• Drain in a paper towel, wait for the badhushas to cool down a little bit and then add to the hot sugar syrup. I did this in batches 2-3 at a time.  Leave for a minute and then drain the badushas to a greased surface.

Notes:

• If your badushas dissolve in oil as you are frying then any one of these is excess : butter/oil / cooking soda. So add more flour to the dough and knead again to troubleshoot the problem.
• Also take note that the oil should be hot when you drop the badushas and later taken off fire. Do not add badushas to not so hot oil.
• If you reduce the quantity of butter or oil,then there will be drastic change in the texture of the badushas too, it will turn hard or crispy. You wont get the layers inside too.
• Consume within a week. Do not refrigerate.
• Do not add ghee in place of butter, it could get crispy, not soft.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#74