Sweet Honeyed Imarti From the Royal Food Menu

Imarti, an exotic Indian delicacy which adorns our plates during weddings and festivals. This sweet has many nicknames to it like Jangiri, Emarti, Amriti and Omriti due to its existence in different states of India. The origin of this sweet dates back to the period of Mughal Era in India.

This favourite treat of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir is considered to be one of the items of Raj Bhog (Royal Food Menu).

This fried sweet made from urad dal/white lentils paste is a close ally to Jalebi which is usually made with all-purpose flour and fermented with yoghurt. But one can easily differentiate both with just their looks. Imarti has a flower-shaped pattern to it and is usually dry, whereas Jalebi is random swirls.

For Batter

• 1 cup Whole Urad Dal / Lentils
• Orange Food Color
• ¼ tsp Salt

For Sugar Syrup

• 1 Cup Water
• 2 Cups Sugar
• Saffron (Few Strands)
• 3-4 Cardamom pods
• 1 tsp Rose water
• Honey
• Lemon juice

And little non flavoured Oil to fry!

Lentils/Urad Dal are nothing but Black grams whose skin have been peeled.

• Rinse urad dal and soak them in water for minimum 2 hours. Drain them in a colander and set aside.
• Then grind it into thick fine paste using grinder or a food processor. The batter should be thick and fluffy so be careful while adding water.
• Add salt and orange food colour to the batter and mix well.

Tip: When you put a pinch of the batter in water, it floats.That’s the right consistency.

• Add 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water. Keep it in a low flame for 5-10 minutes. Do not overheat, that will caramelize the sugar.
• Once the sugar syrup turns slightly sticky switch off the flame.
• Then add 3-4 cardamom pods and a few strands of saffron. You can also add 1 tbsp of Rose water. It's optional.

Tip: You can add few drops of lemon juice to this sugar syrup. This prevents the sugar from forming crystals.

• Fill batter to a piping or Ziploc bag and cut it to make a hole. Alternatively, you can also use a ketchup bottle to do the trick.
• Take a wide bottomed pan and pour 1-inch oil to it. Keep on low flame or medium flame.
• While oil is medium, make first few circular rounds and then half way through make a flower like pattern on the previously made circles. You can try making these shapes on a plate first.
• Deep fry till both sides are slightly crisp. You can use a skewer or wooden chopstick to flip over and cook.
• Drop them in warm sugar syrup. Leave the Imartis in sugar syrup for 3 to 5 mins and take them out on a plate.
• Depending on your sweet tooth, you can pour the remaining syrup/honey over the Imartis.

Tip: You can also use Pure ghee to fry the Imartis instead of oil. It gives much richer taste to them.

Imarti can be served hot or refrigerated. Most like it hot though as it just melts in the mouth.

Take a bite and try this for yourself. I bet you can't eat just one!

It's really easy to make once you know the trick. Also, don't worry about the shapes, it tastes best in any form. we tried different forms this time from mini circles to flowered ones.