Veggie Platter: Jamun

Thursday, April 12, 2018

A - Z Indian Street Soods ~ J for Jamun Bun

My husband's hometown is Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh and naturally he has fond memories attached to the place. Y.V. Street happens to be the central point of that town both literally and figuratively. It is the primary business center and the focal point for all the hustle bustle of the town. My husband's ancestral home used to be smack right in the middle of this area and a few steps outside in the evening would land him in the tempting zone of street foods. I guess as a kid, it was definitely enchanting to him considering that the man hasn't changed much at all in his love for street fare.

This jamun bun seems to be one of his favorite during those times and he wanted me to recreate that magic once more. He remembered what went in though he forgot the name of these delicious sweet buns. He wasn't even sure that any one sold these buns anymore in the town. I had never heard about it before and so, was no help in figuring out the name of this bun. A few calls to his siblings and even a friend in Kadapa resulted in knowing that these buns are still sold in the town. That particular friend had in fact ate that bun the previous day he was called but said that he doesn't recall the name either.

These buns have gulab jamun stuffed inside. Gulab jamun is a famous Indian dessert where spongy milk-solid balls are fried and dunked in rose flavored sugar syrup. I have never seen anyone in southern India using the rose flavor for the syrup though and so we simply call it as jamun. That's why at last we figured out that these must be obviously called jamun buns. A jamun is placed on one of the half a bun, topped with chopped nuts and sprinkled with cardamom to flavor and then syrup is poured over on the other half. I have a sweet tooth and naturally these buns tempted me as soon as I heard the description and I chose these 'Jamun Buns' for my alphabet 'J' in the 'Indian Street Foods' Series. I used the store bought instant pack of jamun mix to prepare my jamuns. These buns were a real treat and I could understand why my husband would remember these buns after all this time.

Ingredients for each serving:
1 bun
1 jamun
1 tbsp. of chopped nuts (I used pistachios and almonds.)
2 pinches of ground cardamom
2 tbsp. or more sugar syrup (used to prepare jamun)

Method:
* Open the two halves of a bun. (I used the Ham burger buns.)