Discovery: Marayoor Jaggery

This write up was first published on FB. It got appreciation from a lot of food lovers so bringing it here under a new label "Discovery"

Marayoor jaggery has always fascinated me. In South Indian temple paysams I wondered how they achieved the rich dark color? Why was it more sweeter than our Maharashtra's golden jaggery? Answers to all these I found out only last night on google. I bought a 1kg of these stone like balls only because a shop in Munnar mentioned on its front that they were selling Marayoor jaggery. My intuition told me that it must be special. All the research has me smitten. This jaggery has 97% sugar content. The sugarcane is grown in the Marayoor rainforest region. I think we drove thru this region  on our recent road trip through Kerala. The pH of the soil makes the wonderful molasses and ofcourse it is unbleached and may be organic. 

Last night I had pressure cooked Chana dal with the aim of making Parsi chana ni daar. So divided the dal into two portions and made the savory chana ni daar to go with our rotlis and made an impromptu payasam too. With Parsi dairy ghee drizzled on it. The meal was so satiating even though simple. The finicky bawa loved it too.

Besides the jaggery I was floored by the history of Marayoor which dates back to stone age and relics of the past. Hope to visit this region again.