In India, festivals and food are interrelated. We have many festivals and each one has its own special dish or food recipe that is prepared in household to mark the occasion. So whether it’s a celebration of new season, any auspicious day or festival to worship god/ goddess; each has something specific to make the occasion more enjoyable. And these are traditional recipes prepared with local ingredients that are available as per season and geographic location.

Recently, in January we celebrated ‘Makar Sankranti’ on 14th. It was joyous occasion all over the country and known by various names like Uttarayan, Pongal, Bihu, Lohri etc. Makar Sankranti is a celebration of harvesting and also observed as Sun’s transition from the southern to northern hemisphere. Makar translates as Capricorn while Sankranti means transition. All over the India it is considered as auspicious day that is celebrated with kite flying, get together and feast of course :). In Maharashtra & Goa; we eat and exchange Tilgul Ladu on this particular day. And greet each other by saying ‘Tilgul ghya ani god god bola’ that literally means ‘Take this sesame ladu and talk sweetly with me’ (translation might sound funny but it’s a sweet gesture).

These sweet til ladu’s are made of sesame seeds, jaggery and peanuts which are rolled into a shape of small balls. Unlike usual ladu this one is hard and crunchy or may be semi hard with chewy texture. As mentioned above this recipe calls for handful of ingredients but needs some precision and maybe little practice 🤪. To make these ladu; Jaggery needs to be melted to specific consistency and have to be rolled while the mixture is still hot. Else mixture gets super tough and difficult to roll into any shape. A specific type of jaggery known as ‘ Chikki Jaggery’ is used for the recipe.

I am sharing my MIL’s recipe of the Tilache Ladu. In our recipe ladu’s aren’t too hard rather semi soft and chewy. Here we have used chikki jaggery which is easily available in India. Other regular jaggery can also be used but results might be different.

Ingredients:

• 200 gms Sesame seeds ( mix of white and black)
• 50 gms roasted Chana Dal ( split chickpeas)
• 100 gms peanuts
• 200 gms chikki jaggery
• Some chopped dry coconut (optional)

How to make:

Take a pan and dry roast sesame seeds on a low heat. Once seeds start making crackling sound, remove the pan from heat and keep it aside.

Next roast peanuts over low heat until all the moisture is removed and it tastes crunchy. At this point you could see light black spots on the surface of peanuts. Take aside roasted peanuts and remove its skin.

Now the important step; melt jaggery over low heat. It takes approximately 10-15 minutes for chikki jaggery to melt. Once it starts melting; take a little amount between two fingers and it should roll into a ball. If this ball dropped into a glass of water it should sink to the bottom. If your jaggery ball pass this test then it’s ready for the next stage. (I have used chikki jaggery here that melts relatively faster and stickier so binds the mixture well. But it also turns hard quickly and that makes it difficult to roll the mixture.)

If you prefer hard ladu’s; then in addition to above water test, try to drop little piece of melted jaggery on a plate and it should make a sound. Also see if this hard jaggery piece snaps easily; that will result in crunchy texture. We prefer semi soft ladu’s with chewy texture so we melted the jaggery until it reaches soft ball stage.

Be careful while melting the jaggery; too much heat can spoil it. It might burn or turn hard and cannot be used for the recipe.

Once jaggery is melted; turn off the heat. Add roasted seeds, peanuts and chana dal with melted jaggery. (The chana dal; we have used here is the one that is available readily roasted and pale yellow in colour. It is known as bhajaki dal in Maharashtra/ Goa. Picture attached for reference).

Combine everything well together and our mixture to roll ladu’s is ready.

While the mixture is still hot; apply water to your palm and roll small ladu’s with the prepared mixture. If mixture cools down while making ladu; heat it slightly and start rolling again. As mentioned earlier, If mixture cools down then it’s difficult to roll them. So, reheat the mixture carefully until it’s soft enough to handle and roll small balls. Repeat this step until all ladu’s are ready. Above proportion gives you approximately 70 small ladu’s. You can store them in an airtight container for upto 30 days at room temperature.

Enjoy these ladu’s with your friends and family.

I hope you like this recipe and would love to give it a try. As always, your feedback is valuable and I love to read your emails; so if there are any suggestions then do let me know. Thanks for stopping by and reading this post; do like, share and subscribe to my blog. You can also connect with me on Pinterest || Instagram  for some amazing food.

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