Sweet Urad Dal Fudge (Variation 2)

Ingredients

• 2 cups Urad Dal (Split Black Gram) (Originally 'Tipri 1'. Scaled for a standard home batch.)
• 1 1/2 cups Ghee (Originally 'Sher 2'. Scaled to match flour quantity.)
• 1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar (Originally 'Sher 2'. Scaled to match flour quantity.)
• 1/4 cup Wheat Starch (Nishasta) (Originally 'wheat milk' (dried). Provides texture.)
• 1/4 cup Water Chestnut Flour (Singoda/Singhara) (Originally 'dried singoda'.)
• 2 tablespoons Almonds (Blanched and sliced.)
• 2 tablespoons Pistachios (Blanched and sliced.)
• 1 tablespoon Charoli (Chironji) Seeds
• 1 tablespoon Poppy Seeds (Khaskhas)
• 1 tablespoon Melon Seeds (Magaj) (Originally '4 types of magaj'.)
• 1 teaspoon Cardamom Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon White Pepper Powder (Originally 'ujla mari'.)
• 1/2 teaspoon Pipramul Powder (Ganthoda) (Root of long pepper, common in Gujarati winter sweets.)
• 1/2 teaspoon Dry Ginger Powder (Sunth)
• 3/4 cup Water (For syrup.)

Instructions

1. 1Clean the Urad dal thoroughly. Roast the dry dal on a griddle (tawa) over medium heat until it is uniformly heated and slightly aromatic. Allow it to cool, then grind it into a fine flour. Sieve the flour to ensure it is smooth.
2. 2Blanch, peel, and slice the almonds, pistachios, and charoli. Clean the poppy seeds. Crush the melon seeds slightly. Grind or crush the cardamom, nutmeg, white pepper, pipramul, and dry ginger separately and sieve if necessary.
3. 3In a large heavy-bottomed pan (kadhai), heat the ghee. Fry the sliced nuts and melon seeds separately until golden. Remove them from the ghee with a slotted spoon and set aside. Crush the fried melon seeds slightly again if needed.
4. 4Remove most of the ghee from the pan, leaving about 2-3 tablespoons. Add the prepared urad dal flour and roast over low heat, stirring constantly until it turns slightly brown and aromatic. Add the water chestnut (singoda) flour and roast for another 2-3 minutes. Remove the mixture from the pan and set aside.
5. 5Add enough remaining ghee to the pan to fry the wheat starch. Fry the wheat starch until it turns a pale red color. Add this to the roasted flour mixture. In a little ghee, lightly roast the poppy seeds and add them to the mixture as well. Combine the roasted flours with the dry ginger, white pepper, and pipramul powder.
6. 6In the same pan, combine the sugar and water. Boil to create a syrup of roughly one-string consistency (do not make it too thick). Add the flour mixture and any remaining ghee to the syrup. Cook on a slow fire, stirring continuously with a spoon until the mixture thickens and ghee begins to separate from the sides.
7. 7Remove from heat. Immediately mix in the fried nuts, melon seeds, cardamom powder, and nutmeg powder. The final texture should be soft, similar to 'Idapak'. Allow to cool slightly before serving or setting into a tray.