Lobongo Lotika (50th Blog Post)

Thanks all for your support. Writing the 50th food entry in my blog.
Today is International Women’s Day. A day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women. This day can also be stated as a day to celebrate the life of a woman who faces hardships with her inner strength.
Here’s wishing you all a Happy Women’s Day.

So how about some “mishti mukh” as known to Bengalis for taking sweets…
Lobongo Lotika, a traditional Bengali dessert, made of flour, filled with mouth watering khoya / mawa mixture and soaked in sugar syrup. A clove is inserted on top of the sweet, hence the name lobongo lotika (clove as known in Bengali).

My grandmother used to make these sweets whenever we went to our grandparent’s place during durga puja (this sweet is generally eaten at bijoya dashami, the 10th day when the idol of Devi Durga is immersed in water).

So here stating the recipe as learned from my grandmother in her memory………

Ingredients:

• 200 gms (2 cups) plain flour / maida
• 200 gms (2 cups) khoya kheer / mawa
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp nutmeg powder
• 1 tsp saunf (mouri / aniseed)
• ½ cup boiling water (as required)
• 6-8 cloves (one for each piece)
• 1- ½ tbsp white oil (for kneading dough)
• white oil / ghee, for frying

Sugar Syrup:

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 cups water
• 4-5 green cardamom (chhoti elaichi)

Procedure:

Preparing sugar syrup:

1. The syrup should be made earlier and kept warm.
2. To make the hot sugar syrup, take a deep pan, mix the 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water. (ratio is 1 part of sugar to 2 parts of water) and bring to a boil.
3. Add 4-5 crushed cardamom pods.
4. Mix with a spoon until all the sugar is dissolved in water. (Do not overheat, or else sugar will get caramelized / hard).
5. Boil the syrup and then simmer to reduce the water by half.
6. Check the consistency by pouring a little syrup from the ladle. (Remember not to put your hand in the warm syrup to test consistency).
7. If the syrup takes times to pour, it means syrup is ready.
8. Clear the syrup by removing the scum formed on the top and transfer the hot syrup into a serving dish.

Kheer Filling:

1. Crumple the khoya kheer / mawa with hand.
2. Take a heavy bottomed kadhai / pan, add the crumpled khoya kheer / mawa and stir on low flame.
3. Add nutmeg powder & saunf and stir on low flame for 3-4 mins.
4. Remove from heat and keep aside to cool.

Preparing the dough:

1. Take a bowl, sift flour and baking powder. Add 1 tsp white oil and boiling water.
2. Mix well and knead to form a soft dough (but not too loose). Keep aside covered for 30 mins.
3. Divide the dough into 6-8 round balls.

Preparing lobongo lotika:

1. Take a rolling board and roll out one ball into round thin pancakes (like we do for puri / luchi, only slightly bigger).
2. Put 1 tsp of the khoya kheer / mawa filling onto the center of the rolled out pancake.
3. Fold the two sides so that they overlap and form a rectangular shaped pancake.
4. Flip the rectangular shaped pancake over to the other side and fold the remaining open sides back ways so that they partially overlap on one anther.
5. Stick a clove in the centre of the 2 folds to seal the folds and it will look like a square shaped pancake.

Frying:

1. Heat oil in deep bottomed kadhai / pan and reduce flame.
2. Slowly release the prepared lobongo lotika to oil and fry on slow heat.
3. Flip to other side and fry till even light brown.
4. Remove from fire and drain the excess oil by keeping the fried lobongo lotikas on a paper towel / tissue paper.

Coating in sugar syrup:

1. Dip the fried lobongo lotikas in the sugar syrup and stir constantly to ensure even coating on all sides.
2. Remove from sugar syrup and refrigerate.
3. Serve cold / warm (microwave for 30 secs) as per taste.

You can catch the recipe for other desserts / sweet dishes.

• Gulab Jamun
• Malpua