It is no secret to the people who know me – I have a sweet tooth. And I very often make something at home giving in to these sweet cravings. This time around I made Garijelu – one of the famous traditional Telangana sweets. I guess each state has a different name for this dish. Most of the Hindi speaking call this sweet – “Gujiya”. Below is the recipe (I know for a fact) is passed down from my grandmother – Ammamma!
Ingredients:
- Dried coconut – 2 halves
- Semolina – 1 cup
- Sugar – 1 cup
- Diced: Cashews, Almonds, Chironji – handful
- Poppy seeds (optional)- 2tbsp
- Cardamon powder- 1/4 tsp
- Wheat flour – 2 cups
- Water – to knead the dough
- Oil – to deep fry
Recipe:
For the filling:
- Take two dried coconut halves and grate them. Since grating is too much work, my dad helped me with this part. And he works smart! He sliced them into bite size pieces and made powder in the mixer. You can buy readymade coconut powder from the stores as well – you can take 2 cups of powdered coconut in this case.
- Add 1 cup of semolina, 1 cup of sugar, 2 tbsp of poppy seeds (this is optional), and handful of diced dried fruits of your choice. I used cashews, almonds and chironji. Finally add cardamon powder. Mix all the ingredients well and set it aside.
For Garijelu:
- Prepare the dough mix for Garijelu just like roti mix. Make small rotis and add 2 tbsp of filling and close them in semicircles. Close the ends by pressing it to seal the filling within and cut the extra dough from the garijelu. Prepare all the garijelu and set them aside.
- Heat oil in a pan. Deep fry the prepared garijelu. And they are ready to eat!
Writing this recipe down makes it seem as an easy process. But this is one of the time-taking dishes I have ever made – even for a batch as small as this.