Til Gajak

I have been in a very sad and nostalgic mood since morning… its been 9 years now but still every winters my heart starts to ache for Delhi and every lohri its at the peak…  I have been thinking about those cold mornings and evenings and the very warming winter food. The Til Gajak… Though now one can easily get it in Bangalore but there is something about the ones from Delhi or may be its the heart, its the memories attached with it. So while I was in that mood today N told me why don’t you make gajak.. Being in kitchen will also pep you up (Yeah its become like a norm now, mona is depressed make her cook/bake) and I really liked the idea and started surfing for the recipe. I initially thought of making Varo which was the Indian Cooking Challenge couple of months back but I had missed it but I also wanted to make something with Jaggery and not Sugar. So the search continued and as usual I picked up something from here, something from there and made my gajak and its absolutely yumm…. infact N was not letting me take pictures at all as wanted to eat. I made a smaller quantity as I was making it for the first time but now I am regretting it…

And now that I have made some gajak and eaten it too I feel better much better and I am planning on what to do in the evening

What I used

• 1 cup sesame seeds
• 1 cup jaggery (I used dark brown jaggery because thats what I had at home, u can go ahead and use the normal jaggery)
• 2 tsp of ghee
• 2 tsp of cardamom seeds powder
• 1/2 cup of water

How I made it

• Dry roast the sesame seeds till they start crackling a little and keep aside
• Grind or cut jaggery coarsely and mix with water and bring to boil, lower the gas and simmer till it becomes a thick syrup. The test here should be to cook it till forms a ball when u drop a little in chilled water

• See the big ball kinds in the above water, like that. Ignore the brownish liquid that was formed by the test I did before when the liquid was not cooked. At the time it will immediately spread and color the water like u see. It will take approx of 7-10 minutes
• At this stage, add the sesame seeds, ghee and cardamom powder and mix well.
• Immediately pour over a greased tray and leave for setting

• Leave it for setting for about 30 minutes and cut into desired shapes and ofcourse eat and lift your senses

So here’s hoping that this delicious offering will pep up your festival too as it did mine happy lohri/Pongal/Sakranti to all of you

And I am sending it to Winter Warmers, what better dish to warm oneself than a gajak….

And did u check out what my fellow foodie marathon buddies are upto? Priya Suresh,Jay, Valli, PJ, Priya Vaasu, Azeema, Reva, Ayeesha, Veena &Soumya.