Anyway mom talked about how gulab jamuns are made from mava - the brown solid. A little flour a little cardamom and you roll the damp mava into little balls and fry them up, before dropping them into saffron and cardamom flavored sugar syrup. Yummmmmmmm ! The stuff you make from a Gits packet - doesnt even come into the territory.
So mom was telling us about how when she was young they would make huge thalis full of Gulab Jamum for parties and to send to dad's friend, and about how she cannot even imaginge making that many so causally any more. She said, we were young and we would just undertake these huge projects and never stop to think of cost or calories......And so I thought back to about a year ago in Memphis. Her parents were having a party for many reasons, and for no reason. My young niece Shruti decided she wanted to make "Cake Balls".
She started by making 3 pan cakes. These she proceeeded to crumble in the food processor. Then she mixed in cake frosting to make a big gooey paste. This she chilled in the refrigerator for a few hours. Then at 10pm after the dinner dishes were done, she brought out huge sheet pans and started to mould the cake and frosting paste into balls. The paste was cold. And we had to try spoons, ice cream scoops to ladle out perfect little balls. Finally, we gave up and dug in with our fingers.
I wonder if Shruti will look back at that evening and think - What were we thinking!!!
