Gulab Jamans with Earl Grey tea, Saffron & Cardamom

This is recipe is my signature dessert - Earl Grey Gulab JamansThere was once a story my Dadijaan (paternal gran) told me about when they migrated to Pakistan in 1947 - she had just made a batch of fresh gulab jamans and did not want to leave them there the day they were leaving. She took no other perishables from their home in Jaunpur, Uttar Pardesh. This was a part of India known for it's  literary genius, posh Urdu but most importantly it's lavish rich Mughal-inspired food and culture. Leaving must have been hard enough but knowing my Dadijaan, leaving those gulab jamans - a labour of love, would be harder. She insisted on taking them with her despite my grandfather's hesitation about the sticky sugar syrup invading his starched 'kurtas' and 'pajamas' in their small beaten-up leather cases. But she took them with her on this labourous journey, and she narrated once how these gulab jaman's actually saw their way across the border and how she felt when she bit into them once in Pakistan - knowing that now she was in a new country that she could call her own. The bittersweet memories of making those jaman's in a land that was once her home and now to be in one that signified independence for my grandparent's and parent's generation. Consuming those jaman's served to mark the end to a previous life and the beginning of a new one.Anyway, enough sentimentalism, I love a good gulab jaman, I mean who doesn't - the piercing sweetness, the lip-smacking milkiness and the fragrance of the spices. This make it a perfect sugar rush or an end to a Pakistani meal. Gulab jaman's are the ultimate in a 'mithai box' given on a happy occasion such as a wedding, birth of a child or Eid or just because! Most of all I love making these because it is the milk powder (in Pakistan it was always Nestle's Nido!) that reminds me of childhood memories when I enjoyed licking the powdered milk when my mom made these. I see now that my daughter does just the same! It's sweet, milky and such a novelty.I have always been a fan of anything that is infused with tea - Earl Grey being one of my personal favourites, I imagined the essence of  Bergamot, together with cardamom and saffron and how these three would co-exist. It was simple, it had to be given a go - and I was proven right, these marry together perfectly like a match made in heaven, and there you have it, flowery, earthy - perfection. I have used my Dadijaan's old gulab jaman recipe as the base and added the tea infusion in the dough as well as the sugar syrup. Adjust the infusion as desired, my recipe below gives a hint of the tea, not an overpowering essence.Ingredients:For the gulab jaman balls:2 tsp semolina (suji)2 1/2 tbsp self-raising flour3/4 cup milk powder2-3 tsp ghee2 tbsp whole milk2-3 tbsp of the Earl Grey tea infusion (To make: soak about 3-4 teabags in a cup boiling water and cool down and then refrigerate for 5 hrs or overnight)ghee and oil mixed for deep frying the jamansFor the sugar syrup:2 1/2 cups caster sugar7-10 cardamom pods, seeds taken out1  pints of water1/2 cup Earl Grey tea infusion1 large pinch of saffron1 tbsp rose waterMakes about 10 gulab jamans, depending on the size.Method:1. Make the syrup first: to do this place all the ingredients for the syrup in a pan over medium heat and dissolve the contents until the syrup boils and then turn down the heat and allow to form a thin sugar syrup - will take about 5 minutes.2. Next to make the gulab jamans: Mix all the powdered ingredients in a bowl and then add the ghee and the milk and tea infusion bit by bit until you form a crumbly dough but all the contents do stick together. At this point take out the dough and knead until all cracks disappear. This is quite important. Put the dough in a bowl and cover until ready to fry.3. When ready to fry, heat the ghee and oil mixture up under a low flame. The trick is to keep the heat low and the oil/ghee mixture not too hot. This should be hot enough not too burn the outside, yet still allow it to  cook the inside completely.4. Form small balls (I tend to make them small as they do double up and also are easier and faster to cook) with the dough and pop into the hot ghee/oil. Do not over crowd, you should let them free float and cook evenly on all sides. Once they are a medium brown evenly and puffed up, take out with a slotted spoon and pop immediately into the sugar syrup. Keep doing this until all the jamans are ready.4. When cut open these should be moist, gooey and cooked through (see pic above). Serve either hot or cold.