Lobongo Lotika (Long Latika)

Long Latika

I know all of you love cooking, at least the love of food has brought you closer to me.

I am  a Bong mom and this blog is a peek into my kitchen here in kolkata. Cooking up something nice keeps me pecked up and my cooking experiments I share with you friends.

Lobongo is Clove in English and Long in Hindi and this sweet is so named as clove is used to seal the envelop like sweet. The use of a single clove gives it a distinct flavour as well.

Ingredients :

For the Syrup :

 Take 1 cup sugar and mix half a cup of water in a pan and heat it on low flame.

Let it melt and mix together to form a thick syrup. When bubbles start to come add 2 tsp milk and wait for it to clear. Cool a bit and then strain the syrup.

For the Dough :

In a large mixing bowl, take 1 cup of refined flour (Maida), 4tbsp ghee and make a smooth dough with the help of half a cup of water.

The dough should not be very hard nor should it be very soft.

Keep it aside to rest for 4-5 minutes while you put the filling together.

For the filling :

In a bowl , take 3 tbsp khoya, 1 tbsp powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp green cardamom powder  

2 tbsp dry fruits finely chopped and mix with hand.( I adopted this filling after seeing a  popular food program on the television)

Alternately you can use just kheer. Reduce full fat milk to form kheer. Mix sugar to sweeten the kheer while reducing.  Add green cardamom powder 1/4 tsp.When absolutely dry use as filling.

To Assemble :

Divide the dough into equal size balls and then with the help of a rolling pin flatten out the  dough balls into small pancakes or luchi.

Place 1 tbsp heaped filling in the middle and then fold two sides so that the overlap. Use a wet thumb to seal the sides. Then do the same to the other sides. On the top seal with a  clove or two.

Heat half a cup of pure ghee or refined sunflower oil  in a pan and fry the Lobongo Lotikas in hot oil till golden.  Fry in small batches. Remove from hot oil when golden and immediately roll on the syrup to coat the Lobongo Lotikas. Don't soak for long ,cause we want crispy lobongo lotikas and not soggy ones.

Place on a serving dish and serve.