Ghevar

Ghevar is made for Teej and Raksha Bandhan, and most families buy it from a halwai rather than attempt it. That is fair — it is genuinely difficult. But the technique is not mysterious once you understand what creates the honeycomb: a very cold, very thin batter hitting very hot ghee. The temperature gap is the whole trick.

If you make it once and it works, you will never be impressed by shop-bought ghevar again.

Ingredients

• ½ cup Gobind Ghee, chilled and solid
• 6 to 8 ice cubes
• 1½ cups plain flour (maida)
• 2 cups ice-cold water, plus more as needed
• ¼ cup cold milk
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Ghee for deep frying — enough for 10 cm depth in a narrow, tall pan
• Syrup: 1 cup sugar, ½ cup water, a few saffron strands, ½ tsp cardamom
• To finish: chopped pistachios, almonds, edible silver leaf, rabri if you like

Method

1. Put the solid ghee in a wide bowl with the ice cubes. Rub the ghee against the ice with your hand for a full 5 minutes, until it turns pale, thick and creamy. This whips air into the fat and it is what makes the structure. Discard any unmelted ice.
2. Add the flour a little at a time, rubbing it in, then the milk and lemon juice.
3. Whisk in the ice-cold water gradually until the batter is completely smooth and very thin — the consistency of single cream. It should coat a spoon barely at all.
4. Keep the batter bowl sitting in a larger bowl of iced water. It must stay cold for the whole process.
5. Heat the frying ghee in a tall, narrow pan until properly hot — a drop of batter should sizzle up immediately.
6. Pour a thin, steady stream of batter from about 30 cm above, straight into the centre. It will froth violently. Wait for the froth to settle and the ring to set, about 1 to 2 minutes.
7. Pour again into the same centre hole. Repeat 4 to 6 times, waiting between each pour, until the disc builds up with its honeycomb structure.
8. When the bubbling slows and the edges turn golden, slide a skewer through the centre hole and lift it out. Drain upright.
9. Boil the sugar and water to a one-string consistency, add saffron and cardamom.
10. Dip the ghevar in the syrup for 1 to 2 minutes only, then lift out and drain. Longer and it goes soggy.
11. Top with nuts, silver leaf and rabri.

The ghee note

Ghee appears twice and both are essential. The ice-rubbed ghee in the batter creates the aerated structure — oil will not hold air the same way. The frying ghee gives the flavour, and because ghee has a high smoke point it stays clean through repeated frying where oil would darken and turn.

Tips

• If the batter warms up, stop and re-chill it. Warm batter gives you a flat fried disc, not a honeycomb.
• A narrow, deep pan makes a neater ghevar than a wide kadhai.
• Leave 1 to 2 minutes between pours. Rushing collapses the layers.
• Your first one will probably fail. Budget for it.

Substitutions

There are none worth having. This is a recipe where every shortcut removes the thing that makes it ghevar.

Storage

Un-soaked ghevar keeps a week in a tin. Soak in syrup only as you serve. Once soaked and topped with rabri, eat the same day.

Serving

At room temperature, with rabri and pistachios, during Teej or Raksha Bandhan.

Nutrition

Approximately 450 kcal per serving, based on six servings, with syrup. A festival sweet. Estimated values.