Black N White Tilgul

Happy Makar Sankrant!

Hope you are flying kites, eating tilgul and enjoying the last bit of the winter chill. 

It's been quite cold in Mumbai like we did need to pull on a light cardigan thru the day. Yeah the tropical climate will come back starting with Sankrant today. The long nights will be gone and the long days will begin. 

During the winter we did indulge with lots of goodies carrot halwa, high teas with Banana bread sandwich, sounds interesting? Come again for the recipe.

Today I am here to post a Black n White Tilgul recipe. Black has a significance for Sankrant in Maharashtra. Black is worn on this day to retain body heat. Black is also the abolisher of evil so on this day we wish that all evil be absorbed by wearing black so that the rest of the year is full of Positivity!

That said I wonder why it is traditional to use only white til or sesame for making the til gul ladu? Until a few years ago I was ignorant and thought black and white til are 2 different varieties but was educated by a friend that Black til is the sesame with the husk and when it is dehusked rather to be exact it is decorticated it gives white sesame. But wiki does mention that other shades of sesame exsist. Then I wonder all the more. Why have I never seen tilgul ladu with black til. 

This is the very reason I chose to make black n white tilgul this Sankrant. Anything with husk is healthier and richer in iron and don't they look pretty! So the label of My Kitchen Lab is justified.

As I set out to make tilgul Dad as usual had doubts. He wondered aloud "hope you get the candy state tilgul". Yeah its been years since I made tilgul successfully. I blame it on bad quality jaggery. Nevertheless I am not one to give up. So a flip of the pages of Ruchira, don't remember if I mentioned it here, I had won it for this post. Then I came up with the recipe I wanted to make. 

Ingredients

3/4 cup Black sesame or til

3/4 cup White sesame or til

1/2 cup coarse ground roasted peanuts

1/4 cup roasted chana dal/ Dahale/ Phutane

1/2 dry shredded coconut

1.5 cup grated jaggery

1/2 cup water

4 pods of cardamom

In a kadhai toast the sesame seeds on sim. Add the coconut shreds, toast to pink. Now follow in with coarse ground roasted peanuts and dahale stir for 30 secs just to make them eminate the aromatic oils.

Keep the kadhai aside. Now in a saucepan add 1/2 cup water and grated jaggery. Boil till all jaggery dissolves and gives a bubbly syrup. 

Meanwhile peel the cardamom. Pound the seeds with a teaspoon of sugar in a mortar and pestle. Save the pod peels in the tea leaves tin for later use. Add the powdered cardamom to the above toasty mix.

Carefully pour the hot jaggery syrup into the kadhai. Mix well to coat the toasted mix with the syrup. Let it cool till the mix is hot enough to handle and a ball can be shaped. Roll pinches of the mix into large marble sized ladu. 

There is a reason why tilgul is marble sized and not as large as boondi or rava or anyother type of a ladu. This seed has astringent effect on the gut and if consumed in large amounts causes loosies.

So eat a small ladu in intervals and let it generate enough heat to keep you warm in the final days of this winter.

Catch all the TV channels broadcasting the Uttarayan special effects like the Gavi Gangadhareshwar temple where the Sankrant sun beam floods the Shivalinga in Bangalore.

Have a lovely rest of the Sankrant!

Our Sankrant Naivedya 

Clockwise: Lime pickle, sweet curd, Masur aamti, Cashew curry, Rice sevai pulao, Malvani vade, papad and Black n white tilgul!