Mix together water, sugar and crushed cardamoms
Boil the syrup until it turns slightly sticky
Switch off before it goes to a 1 string consistency
If it reaches a 1 string consistency, then add 2 tbsp of water and mix
Add rose water and mix
Set aside
rose water is not mandatory
Mix together flour, milk powder and soda
Either sieve it or mix uniformly
Add ghee to this flour and mix well
Mix together yogurt and milk
Add 1 1/2 tbsp of this to the flour mixture
Begin to bring the flour together to make a dough
Knead the dough well
If the dough turns sticky
Grease your fingers and make a ball
The dough must not soggy
It must hold the shape well
Make 12 to 14 equal sized balls and heat up the pan with ghee or oil
Also check if the syrup is hot
If it is not hot, heat it up a bit
It must be hot and not very hot
When the ghee is just medium hot, add the balls
Make sure the oil is not very hot else the gulab jamuns will brown without cooking well
To check the right temp, you can drop a small piece of dough in the oil, it must rise slowly without changing its color
If it rises rapidly then you will need to cool the oil a bit before frying
Fry the balls until golden stirring uniformly
Add them to the hot syrup
Allow them to rest for 3 hours and serve
Garnish with pistachios