Rangalur Pantua Or Red & Sweet Potato Gulab Jamun

Mishti aloo’r pantua or Lal alur pantua or sweet potato jamuns are traditional Bengali sweet and it is a festival sweet too. My mother used to make it during Shivaratri. This one is a little tricky but with proper direction and understanding you can master this heavenly dessert. Sweet potatoes are rich in beta carotene, full of antioxidants, daily source of vitamin A, helps to achieve low GI, controls blood sugar level. Hence sweets made up from this is surely healthy and yummy of course.

Preparation Time: - 30 min

Cooking Time: - 30 min

Servings: - 4~5 persons

Ingredients:-

For Dumplings

1.      3 nos. Red Potato (medium size)

2.      2 tbsp Rice Flour

3.      3 tbsp All purpose flour

4.      3 tbsp grated Khowa or Milk Powder

5.      2 tsp Boiled Milk (optional)

6.      Pinch of baking soda (optional)

7.      Pinch of salt

8.      1 tsp Cardamom powder

For Syrup

9.      2 ½ cup sugar

10.   3 cup Water

11.   3 crushed green cardamom powder

12.   Few Saffron threads

For frying

13.   Sufficient Ghee or oil for deep frying. I use a 50:50 mixture of Ghee and sunflower oil but any vegetable oil can be used if you do not want to use Ghee for health purpose.

Preparation: -

1. Boil 3 Red potatoes and mash them. You can use blender to make it without any lumps left. Keep aside.
2. Boil the milk if you want to use milk in making dumplings. I do use it for adjusting the smoothness of the dough.
3. Crush 3 pods of green cardamom with pestle and mortar. Remove the husk. Keep aside.
4. To make the syrup, take a big vessel/pan. Add sugar, water & green cardamom and heat it with high flame to start boiling. Sprinkle saffron threads in it. Turn the heat to medium and continue boiling till the syrup looks sticky enough. You can use jaggery if you have any health issue with sugar.
5. Take the mashed sweet potato in a bowl and add rice flour, maida (all purpose flour), khowa/milk powder, pinch of baking soda, pinch of salt and cardamom powder. Mix well to make a soft dough. Baking soda may be harmful for children and you can avoid it. It makes the jamun fluffy.  If the dough is hard and dry, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of boiled milk and make it soft. If the dough is runny, add some flour to keep the binding tight.
6. Now make approx. 15 balls from the dough and keep aside.
7. (optional and I did not do it) Make a small hole using your finger in each ball, put some chopped nuts, saffron, sugar crystal & a seed of black cardamom. Close the hole nicely. Some people like it this stuffing.
8.  Cover with damp cloth and keep aside the dumplings for frying later.
9. Take a deep-frying pan & heat Ghee or Oil or Both ghee and oil. Once heated sufficiently lower the flame and deep fry the balls till they become golden brown. Pick up the fried dumplings and drop inside the sugar syrup immediately.

Serve hot / cold as you want. Both ways it tastes great. It is good as a dessert after meal or as a standalone sweet.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.