Bhavna
Mysore Pak is a rich sweet dish prepared in butter, from Southern India, usually served as dessert. It originated in Mysore. It is made of generous amounts of ghee, sugar, gram flour, and often cardamom.
Mysore pak was first prepared in the kitchens of the Mysore Palace during the regime of Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, by a palace cook named Kakasura Madappa. Madappa made a concoction of gram flour, ghee and sugar. When asked its name, Madappa having had nothing in mind, simply called it the ‘Mysore pak’. Pak (or paka, more precisely), in Sanskrit and other Indian vernaculars, means sweet. It is traditionally served in weddings and other festivals of southern India, and is very popular in baby showers as well.
Mysore Pak
Ingredients
- Bengal gram - 1 cup
- Water -1/2 cup (I added 3/4 in video but 1/2 cup water is just fine)
- Sugar - 1 cup
- Ghee - 1 cup
- Oil 3/4 cup , divided
- Cardamom powder -1/2 teaspoon
- Food color - optional
Instructions
- Heat up 4 tbsp oil till smoky and pour onto the Besan, mix well and sieve through to break lumps. This step is optional but helps to remove the raw taste of Besan.
- Place sugar in a heavy bottomed pan, with water enough to immerse say 1 cup water.
- Boil until 1 string consistency. This is if you check between your forefinger, a string will form. Keep the flame in medium when the syrup is nearing its stage. Swipe the back of the ladle you use in the syrup for checking.
- Add the flour slowly stirring continuously. Mix until smooth. The flame should always be medium (My suggestion to make hard Mysore pak (like Karnataka style) - Melt ghee and oil together. Keep aside near kitchen platform with a steel ladle. Pour sieved besan in 2 batches. Give a quick stir. Do not allow besan to become a smooth paste. Immediately add a ladleful of ghee - oil in 4 - 5 batches. Stir continuously. Ghee - besan mixture will become featherlight and also a porous structure / dark yellow in color. All these changes will happen within 3 - 4 minutes. Do not allow ghee to dries up. Pour this hot Mysore pak into a square or round steel thali / / tray / baking dish and remove extra ghee from one corner side of the steel plate. Wait for 3 minutes and cut it into desired shape and size. Once it completely cools, remove from the thali).
- Mix and keep ghee and oil ready. Start adding ghee slowly and continuously like 2 – 3 tablespoon at a time.
- Keep stirring until the ghee mixes and then add the next batch of ghee and repeat until you finish the ghee.
- At one stage, the color changes to pale and frothy here and there, be alert at this time and lastly the mixture starts frothy. Also there will be a pleasant cooked besan aroma along with ghee aroma. Put it to the greased tray / baking dish and level it with a spatula. Wait until warm and cut into desired shape. Let it cool down completely before transferring to the container.
