Special Mysore Pak

It doesn?t matter how they call it elsewhere, but at home, my teddies call it ?special? mysore pak. It is rich in ghee, and definitely rich in calories but when you place it on your tongue and when it melts, Mmmmm...it?s simply scrumptious.

Mysore Pak originates from the kitchen of Mysore Palace, in the state of Karnataka, where it was first created by a palace cook named Kakasura Madappa. Let's come to our kitchen now:


Ingredients: (makes about 15 pieces)
2 cups gram flour
3 cups ghee
For the sugar syrup:
2 cups sugar
Water (approximately ¾ of a cup)
½ tsp Powdered Saffron
1 tbsp rose water ( optional)
½ tbsp powdered cardamoms


Method:
In a double bottomed vessel, roast on medium heat, the gram flour, in half a cup of ghee, until the raw smell goes.

In the meanwhile, prepare the sugar syrup.
In another vessel, put the sugar and add water just to cover the sugar;.
Make a thick syrup of two string consistency. If one takes a bit of the warmed syrup by the fingers and separate, it should form a thread. Add the rose water, the saffron and the cardamoms.

Add the roasted gram flour as soon as the thread consistency is formed. Stirr well so that it doesn?t stick to the bottom of the vessel.
Now add the remaining ghee a tablespoon at a time and start stirring and stirring. It doesn?t matter at all if your hands are aching, preventing it from sticking to the bottom is more important that your hands?.!!!!
Stir while adding the ghee and continue stirring until the ghee is absorbed by the gram flour mixture each time before you add the next tablespoon; Hope I?m clear???!!!


We?re not done yet, continue stirring until you see at last a sort of frothy kind of mixture, when it bubbles and when it doesn?t stick any more to the sides of the vessel.
Stop everything and pour this mixture into a greased plate and shake the plate a little to spread the mixture evenly.

Wait until it becomes warm to cut them into desired shapes.
It?s now time for the degustation!