A Fried Sweet~Lolo

This is one of unique and important festival in the Sindhi festival calendar. The festival is dedicated to Goddess Mahalaxmi, the Goddess of wealth and being celebrated during the “Shiradhs” – a time period of two weeks dedicated for paying homage to forefathers. Celebration of festival starts with tying “Sagaro” a thread belt compiled from raw thread with sixteen knots,on wrist. On the eighth shiradh, sagaro is untied

To mark the end of festival a special worship prayer of Goddess Mahalaxmi is conducted in near by temple where all the ladies are gathered with sagara of all the family members. Each sagaro is rolled over the set of four “Puris” and for each sagara set of two each Sori [sixteen pointed Tiki] and Titar [with four points] are made and after the worship are to be eaten by the family member concerned.

For this festival Tikyoon, Lola and Satpuda are prepared in Sindhi homes. Satpuda soaked in sweet milk is one of tasty sindhi food. (source-The sindhu world)

Last month we observed this untying of thread,and the best part of it was making Fried Lola which my son relish like anything

Though normally these are made with sixteen or four points,but i asked my son to help me making those,without bothering how many pointed tips it had,since these were not going for pooja ceremony,but into the school  tiffinbox of my son.And he likes these to be somewhat star shaped:-)

Ingredients:

• 250 gms wheatflour
• 60 gms sugar
• 35 ml oil
• Water
• Green cardamons(choti elaichi)3-4
• Oil for frying
  

Method:

• In a saucepan boil about a cup of water,add sugar,cardamons(peeled or crushed)
• Let the sugar dissolve properly
• Alternatively some of sugar can be substituted with jaggery,so in that case boil jaggery and sugar together, also put a spoonful of milk as it will remove the impurities of sugar
• Now this is tricky as the syrup consistency should not be too thin or else the lolas will be less sweeter.The syrup should be bit sticky when pinched between the fingers
• Now let the syrup cool off properly
• Strain it
• Take the wheat flour ,mix oil and pour the syrup little by little and knead the flour,adding more syrup at intervals
• The dough should be stiff and if needed very small amount of water can be added
• Now take a small portion of this dough,and roll it till a thickness as  that of paratha is achieved
• With the help of  an inverted small steel bowl or glass,or any cutter,cut the rolled dough into small poori sized discs
• You can fry them as it is or to make it more appealing to kids,pinch the edges at short intervals
• With a fork spoon,prick on one side of these discs so that they get properly fried from  inside.Repeat the whole procedure with remaining dough
  
• Now take a frying pan,heat the oil(remember the oil should not be too hot or else the surface of discs will be browned while inside these will be uncooked,but if oil is too little hot,the lola will crumble or get soggy)
• Deep fry them on low flame till nice golden colour is achieved
• Generally after frying these ,a spoonful of powdered sugar is spread over the centre of these lola,and a spoonful of hot oil is poured over it.But i avoided it,due to the health reasons
• Let them cool,and  later,store them in airtight container.
• Fried lolas ,if stored properly ,have a shelf life of about a week

This is my entry for Paajakas -Deep fried or steam cooked sweets event

Also this goes to Tongueticklers,the  Theme of October is FIC-Brown