New Delhi: The festival calendar looks bright and colourful as India gears up to celebrate the harvest season celebrations. Most of our age-old traditional delicacies for Makar Sankranti are prepared using sesame seeds (til) and jaggery that is consumed in huge numbers during this time. These traditional delicacies are not only meant for pampering our taste buds but also for maintaining good health and keeping away a number of health issues that we are prone to, especially in this season.
1.Til Gud Poli
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- White sesame Seeds cleaned 2 cups
- Jaggery, grated 2 cups
- Cardamom powder 1 ½ tsp
- Nutmeg powder ¼ tsp
- Whole wheat flour 1 ½ cups
- Rock salt to taste
- Cow ghee 2 tbsp
Steps:
- Mix whole wheat flour, oil, and salt and knead it well to form a dough.
- Cover the dough with a moist cloth to keep it soft.
- Dry roast the sesame seeds, till they turn golden brown.
- Once they cool down, pound them coarsely.
- Add the grated jaggery and pound once again, to make the mixture even and smooth.
- Add the cardamom and nutmeg powder; the sesame seed mixture is now ready to be stuffed.
- Take a small ball-sized portion of the kneaded dough into your palm and make it into a small bowl shape.
- Fill this dough bowl with a teaspoon of the sesame seed mixture prepared in step 6.
- Pull up the sides and seal the ball.
- Repeat steps 7 to 9 till all the stuffed balls are ready.
- Oil a rolling board and place a stuffed ball on it.
- Roll out the ball into a thin round disk. Repeat with other balls.
- Dry roast it on a pan, then apply little ghee and cook again till they turn golden brown and crispy.
- Your til gud poli is ready to be served hot.
2. TIL PAPADI
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 8 minutes
Ingredients:
- Sesame seeds 200 gms
- Jaggery (Organic) 150 gms
- Cow ghee 1 tbsp
- Pistachio, finely chopped 1 tbsp
Steps:
- Lightly roast sesame seeds and leave them aside.
- Break jaggery into small pieces.
- Melt ghee and jaggery in a small pan and cook it on a medium flame by continuously stirring it.
- Check if the jaggery has become crispy; to do this, take some water in a small bowl and add a drop of melted jaggery in it and test its crispiness.
- Once the jaggery is crispy, add roasted sesame seeds to the jaggery pan and mix well.
- Keep this pan in a large bowl of hot water.
- Take a small portion of this mixture at a time and flatten it with the help of a rolling pin.
- Sprinkle a few slices of chopped pistachio on top and immediately roll it. You can smear a rolling pin, palms, and work surface slightly.
- Transfer the roll to a clean butter paper sheet and allow it to cool.
- Divide it into small pieces and store in an airtight container.
