My first set of celebration food for Diwali this year which is nothing but the famous Bong sweet; Darbesh a.k.a Dorbesh, the divine one! This was in my planner for a long time but I was not much confident with Dorbesh because the process of making Dorbesh a bit tricky and I don’t have proper ladle to prepare the Bonde but when there is a will, there is way and I have used my perforated ladle which I mainly use to fry Luchi for making Bonde!
“Darbesh” is a popular and classical Bengali sweet which is a lookalike of Boondi Laddu but different taste wise. One of the main ingredients of Dorbesh is Khowa / Mawa while we don’t add Khowa in Boondi Laddu. In West Bengal especially in the joint families, people used to set “VIEN” during marriages which is actually a special group of caterers who’re only responsible for making sweets and “Dorbesh” is one of the common sweet that’s prepared through the VIEN system apart from Rosogolla , Ledikeni, Pantua , Sandesh etc. However, it is easily found in the sweet shops in West Bengal.
This is my first attempt of preparing “Dorbesh “ and believe me I was too much scared as I was not confident of preparing Bonde / Boondi which is the heart of this awesome sweet but with the grace of God, Boondi came out superb!
- Gram Flour: 2 cup (250 g)
- Rice flour: 2 tbsp.
- Khowa: 150 g
- Sugar: 4 cups (500 g) ( can be adjusted based on the preference of sugar )
- Ghee / Clarified Butter: 75 g
- White Oil: for deep frying
- Baking Soda: 1 pinch
- Green Cardamom: 6-8
- Cashew Nut / Kaju: 25 g
- Almond / Badam/ Kathbadam: 25 g
- Raisin / Kishmish: 25 g
- Melon Seed/ Charmagaj: 2 tbsp.
- Food Color: based on your need; I have used Yellow, Orange, Red and Green (Optional)
- Sugar syrup with a consistency of one tread is required for making “Dorbesh”.
- Turn the flame on and place a thick bottom pan with 4 cup sugar and around ¾ cup water and cook on high flame for around 1-2 minutes to melt the sugar completely.
- Now cook for another 2-3 minute in medium flame and check the consistency of the sugar syrup. Take a 1-2 drop of syrup in a spoon and let it cool and after that check the consistency with the help of fingers. If the thread formed then switch off the flame immediately or else cook for another 1-2 minutes and check the consistency.
aligncenter size-full" title="boondi Batter for Darbesh" alt="%boondi Batter or Darbesh" />- We need a semi-runny (not too thick) batter for Boondi / Bonde.
- Mix Besan/gram flour along with rice flour and a pinch of baking soda properly.
- the flour mixture with the help of a sieve. It’s better to take a big bottom bowl for making the batter.
- Keep around 1 cup of water for making the batter but don’t add entire water in one go.
- At first, add very little water to the flour mixture and whisk the batter scrupulously to dissolve all the lumps. After that, add rest of the water to the mixture to get a semi-thick consistency. I have used a ¾th cup of water for 2 cups of Besan.
- Add 1 tbsp. of white oil in the mixture and mix it properly and give the batter a rest of around 20-30 minutes.
- Take around 5 tbsp. of batter in a small bowl and add 1 drop of red color to it and mix properly.
- Take 5 tbsp. batter in another small bowl and add one drop of green color and mix that properly too.
- In the remaining batter add 2-3 drops of orange color and mix properly.
aligncenter size-full" title="Making of Boondi" alt="%Making of Boondi" />- Take sufficient white oil with 75g ghee in a deep bottom pan and heat it over high flame. (I have used a mixture of Ghee-oil for frying while bonde can be fried with either oil or ghee also).
- We need round shaped boondi for making “Darbesh”.
- Pour in 1-2 drops of batter in hot oil; if it forms flat and tailed boondi then we need to add a bit gram flour to get a perfect consistency.
- For making boondi we need two perforated ladles (one for frying and another for making boondis).
- Take a ladle/ jhara and place it over the hot oil in the wok (6-7 inch above).
- Keep the flame on the higher side.
- Take one big spoon full of batter and pour it on the perforated ladle and spread with the spoon lightly.
- Now, fry the boondis till they cooked properly but don’t over fry boondis as we don’t need crispy boondis for making “Darbesh “.
- Following this step use entire batter including the colored batter to get a plate full of colorful boondi.
- Clean the perforated ladle with the help of a piece of cloth after making of each batch of Boondi.
- Chop dry fruits except for melon seeds roughly but don’t fry those.
- We need warm sugar syrup for preparing D0rbesh.
- Add all the dry fruits and green cardamom powder in the syrup and mix properly with the help of a ladle.
- Now add entire
boondi to the syrup and mix it again. - Add grated
khowa and mix it properly. - Give the mixture a standing time of one hour.
- Making of the Round wonders:
- After that, wet your hand with some water and take 2-3 tbsp. of the mixture and make small round ball by pressing with the help of both the hand and make rest of the “Dorbesh” following the same process.
- Amazing “
Dorbesh's are ready but give those small wonders around 2 hours of standing time before eating!!!
Diwali Recipes other than Darbesh from Debjanir Rannaghar:
- Kesar Peda
- Monohara
- Narkel diye Niramish Ghugni
- Two in One Sondesh
- Chocolate dipped Coconut Mawa Laddu
- Baked Kesari Sandesh
- Lyangcha
- Karachi Halwa
- Chandrapuli
Have you tried the Darbesh Recipe from Debjanir Rannachar!
Do let me know how it came out. Also, I would love to see a picture of the same which you can share here on dolonchttrj@gmail.com. On Instagram you can use my hashtag #debjanirrannaghar or you, in addition, you can tag me at @foodofdebjani.
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