Chandrahara

Among the dishes invented by MTR in Blre, Chandrahara is one. When the owner of MTR visited France he tasted a sweet and it attracted him a lot.The sweet looked flaky like a pastry. He wished to introduce it in MTR and asked his chefs to try that recipe and named it as French Sweet. But the sweet was not much adored by the customers and it was almost a flop. Later he decided to rename the sweet with a popular movie of that time as Chandrahara. Then the sweet became very popular and even now it is popular. It is served on every Sundays even now and there is a lot of crowd to taste this delicacy. The crispy deep fried pastry is dipped in sugar syrup and is served with Khova rabdi or Khova syrup. I made this recipe to publish in vikatan Magazine. Thank you Vikatan for letting me to try these innovative recipes.

Also check my other Diwali sweets Boondhi ladoo, Mysorepak, Seven cup cake, Gulab Jamun with Paner & Khova, Coconut macaroons

Servings – 8 Chandraharas

INGREDIENTS

Maida – 125 gm

Semolina – 25 gm

Baking soda – 1 tsp

Ghee – 1 to 2 tbsp

Salt – 1/4 tsp

Cloves – 8

Water – To knead

Sugar Syrup

Sugar – 1/4 cup

Water – 1/8 cup + 2 tbsp (if req)

Khova Rabdi

Unsweetened Khova – 100 gm

Milk – 250 ml

Sugar – 100 gm

Cardamom powder – 1 tsp

Mixed nuts – 2 tbsp (Almonds, Cashews, Pistachios – Chopped into small pieces)

Preparation of fried Pastry

In a bowl, add maida, semolina, soda, ghee, salt and mix well with your hands.

Sprinkle water little by little and knead it to a stiff dough.
Donot add water at one stretch. The dough might become watery. So always add water little by little.
Rest the dough for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take small portions of dough and make small balls. I got 8 balls from the above measurements.
Take one ball at a time, dust it with maida and roll it out like we make chappathi.

Fold it into half and it appears like a semi circle.

Fold it into another half again and it appears like a triangle.

Insert a clove at the end as shown in the pic and video. This will prevent the sweet from opening while frying it.

Prick it with fork and it helps in frying easily and the dish will get cooked properly.

Heat the oil. Drop a small ball to check if the oil is hot. If it raises to the top, then the oil is ready to fry these pastries.
Drop the Chandraharas one by one and into the oil and fry it in medium flame. Donot fry in high flame as it will result in uncooked product.

Frying these will take some time so do it patiently without any hurry.

Once it is golden brown and looks crispy, remove it from the oil and drain it on a tissue paper.

Allow it to cool.

Preparation of Sugar Syrup

In a vessel add sugar and the water. Boil it and dissolve the sugar.

Continue to boil it until you reach one string consistency.
To check it take a drop of sugar syrup between your forefinger and thumb. When you pull apart gently, one thread is formed as shown in the pic.

The sugar syrup is ready. Turn off the stove and pour this syrup over the fried pastries. Flip the pastries and coat it with sugar syrup on all sides.

Allow it to sit for 30 minutes so that the pastry will absorb the sugar syrup.

Preparation of Khova Syrup / Khova rabdi

In a pan, add milk, cardamom powder and sugar.

Boil the milk and dissolve the sugar completely.
Add unsweetened khova and dissolve it completely. Keep it in medium flame and stir continuously until it reduce to 3/4th quantity.