Ever tried gluten-free lip-smacking jalebis?

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 7

Having already prepared items like biscuits, noodles, semolina and porridge from potatoes, the scientists at ICAR’s Central Potato Research Station (CPRS) here have now come up with lip-smacking potato jalebis.

The potato jalebis taste very much like the ordinary jalebis, may be even slightly better. The gluten-free jalebi has been prepared by Dr Arvind Kumar Jaiswal, scientist, food technology, here, who has already applied for a patent for the purpose.

He explains the concept: “Traditionally, jalebi is prepared by a fermented batter of refined wheat flour along with added curd as an indigenous source of lactic acid bacteria or yeast, salt and water. The thick leavened batter is squeezed and deposited as continuous spirals into hot edible oil. These fried spirals are removed from fat and submerged in hot sugar saffron-scented syrup, which saturates their hollow insides. But the presence of refined wheat flour makes traditional jalebi unfit for gluten-intolerant persons due to the presence of gluten as an active component. But potato jalebi will not be a problem for them”.

Another issue associated with the traditional jalebi is that it cannot be stored for longer times because jalebi is preferred when served hot and crispy. To satisfy the jalebi hunger of the gluten-intolerant population and to bring something new for jalebi lovers, the ICAR-CPRI has developed and standardised the process for ‘Potato-based gluten-free ready-to-reconstitute potato jalebi’ and ‘Instant potato jalebi premix’.

“In ready-to-reconstitute type potato jalebi, it needs to be submerged in hot sugar syrup for two minutes before consumption. This potato jalebi has a shelf life of 3-4 months at ambient storage conditions without any loss in crispiness. The utilisation of the whole potato also makes potato jalebi rich in dietary fibre,” he explained.

Dr Jaiswal adds in more things to its advantage. “Interestingly unlike other potato products such as chips and French fried potato, the potato jalebi is independent of shape, size, dry matter, sugar, and variety of potatoes. Partially damaged or cold-stored potatoes can also be utilised. This technology can be easily adopted by industries involved in the production of ready to reconstitute food products, sweet shops and food industries involved in the production of snacks. As this product is ready-to-reconstitute type therefore can be easily sold at sweet shops, kiryana shops, malls, supermarkets, and departmental stores also. The technology is ready for commercialisation. At present, this technology has been tested at a laboratory scale only.”