Lobongo Lotika : Bengali Sweet

The word Lobongo (Clove) makes me wonder what a wonderful spice it is. It's utility can be judged by the fact that it can be used as a painkiller for toothache. If one is suffering from bad throat then also we look around for these small bullets. I remember during my early years my Mom used to stock the cloves as well as clove oil as home remedy and the best part is unlike allopathic drugs there are no side effects . Mom would always travel  with a small box containing cloves during train journeys as they would add as mouth freshner :-)

Lobongo Lotika  is a traditional Bengali Sweet which has khoya as stuffing  and wrapped like a small parcel then dipped into  thick sugar syrup. Lobongo (clove) is used as a star ingredient here to keep the parcel in place along with imparting its own flavor.

Ingredients:

To Make the Outer dough:
1 cup flour
Pinch of baking Soda
1 1/2 tbsp white oil (moyen)
Water to knead the dough
14-15 Cloves

To make the filling:
250 gms Khoya
Pinch of Clove powder
Pinch of Cardamom powder
Pinch of Nutmeg powder

To make the Sugar syrup:
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Water
2  green Cardamoms

Method:
Start with the sugar syrup, pour sugar and water into a bowl and cook on low heat. Add 2 crushed cardamoms into it and boil the syrup till it starts thickening. Two string consistency is good for this kind of sweet.

Mash mawa with hand and make it into a smooth ball. In a heavy bottomed pan heat mawa without any oil for 3-4 minutes. Add all the powders mentioned below filling section. Keep aside to cool. 

In a bowl add flour, baking soda and mix well. Make a well in the center and add oil and water to mix thoroughly. Make a soft dough and cover it for another 10-15 minutes. Divide the dough into 10-12 equal round balls.

Roll the dough like very small pooris(approx 4 inch), place 2 tsp khoya stuffing in the center and wrap the opposite ends to look similar like rectangles and then fold the remaining two ends to make a square wrap. Seal the center by inserting one clove and prepare the rest of the squares.

 Heat oil in a frying pan and slide 3-4 lobongo lotikas and fry on low heat. Flip frequently so that they turn brown evenly on both sides. Remove from pan once they turn light golden and dip them in sugar syrup. Make sure that both the sides are getting drenched in the syrup. Serve at room temperature.