Jaggery is a type of unrefined sugar made from palm or sugar cane. It is used extensively in both sweet and savoury dishes across India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. A dash of jaggery when added to vegetables like bitter gourd reduces the bitterness to a great extent. Jaggery is also used in the preparation of cakes, pithas, kheer, etc.

The following are 6 recipes that uses jaggery.

SINGORI

Singori is a famous dessert in India that is prepared from mawa. Jaggery and grated coconut are served wrapped using banana leaf, and topped with rose petals. This sweet is prepared during the seasonal celebrations of Uttarakhand, India as a special delicacy.

Ingredients

½ kg unsweetened khoya/mawa

½ cup jaggery

1 cup fresh grated coconut

3 tbsp fresh rose petals

10-12 banana leaves folded into cones

Method

Smash the mawa on a flat surface until it becomes smooth. Mix the mawa with jaggery in a pan. Cook the mawa-jaggery mixture for about 10 minutes. Add fresh grated coconut. Cook for another 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat. Let the mawa mixture cool down completely. Divide the mixture into 20 equal balls. Transfer each mawa ball to each banana leaf cone. Decorate the cone with fresh washed rose petal.
Singoris are ready to be served.

ALMOND JAGGERY BARFI

Ingredients

2 cups almond

1¼ cup jaggery

¼ cup water

1/8 tsp green cardamom powder

1 tbsp edible almond oil or ghee

1 tsp sesame seeds

Method

Grease a tray, or square pan. Add almonds and cardamom to a mixer jar. Grind them to a powder, but not enough for them to begin releasing oils. Dissolve jaggery in a pan of water and strain the liquid to remove any impurities. Rinse the pan and return the syrup back to the pan. Boil the jaggery syrup until it reaches soft ball consistency. To test, add ½ teaspoon of the syrup formed to a bowl of water, you should be able to make a soft ball. Add the ground almond powder and switch off the heat. Stir well until the mixture blends well. Pour it to the greased tray and sprinkle sesame seeds. Leave it for 5-6 hours and cut it into squares and serve.

JAGGERY BOONDI LADDU

Ingredients 

1 cups besan (chickpeas flour)

1 cup rice flour 

2 cups grated jaggery

½ cup milk

½ cup water 

3 pods of cardamom 

2 tbsp ghee

10 cashew nuts, broken, fried

Oil for frying 

A pinch of salt

Method 

Combine the rice flour and chickpeas flour and sieve together. Take a bowl and add flour mixture and add water and milk. Mix well and make boondi batter. Keep aside. In a pan, boil 1 cup of water and add the jaggery. Cook until the jaggery is dissolved. Add the ghee and cardamom pods. Mix well and keep aside. Heat oil in a pan. Place boondi special ladle just over oil and pour boondi batter little by little and fry. Take out boondi and keep in a bowl. Prepare boondi with whole batter and add them to the jaggery syrup. Add the cashew nut and mix well. Divide the mixture into equal round laddus. Store them in an airtight container or serve immediately.

OATS JAGGERY COOKIES

Ingredients

1 cup oats

½ cup whole wheat flour

¼ cup almond

¼ cup desiccated coconut

½ cup jaggery powder

¼ cup honey

¼ cup oil

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

Method

Preheat the oven at 170°C for 10 minutes. Grease or line a baking tray with parchment paper or aluminium foil. Grind the almonds and oats into fine powder. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients with almonds and oats powder. Combine and mix everything well. Don't knead much. Make small balls and lightly press with your palm. Place on baking tray 1-inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges become brown. Cookies will be soft when hot. So, let it cool down completely. Serve or store in airtight container for later. Enjoy these healthy and yummy cookies with your tea, coffee, or milk.

JAGGERY KALAKAN

Photo: Sazzad Ibne Sayed

Ingredients

2 litres full fat milk

A pinch of alum (fitkari)

4 tbsp jaggery

Chopped pistachio, to sprinkle

Method

Boil milk in a deep, thick-bottomed pan on medium heat until it thickens lightly. Add alum, stir continuously and cook till the milk becomes grainy and most of the moisture evaporate. Add jaggery, mix well, and cook for 5-10 minutes or till the mixture thickens again. Grease an aluminium tray with ghee. Pour the milk mixture into the tray and level the surface. Sprinkle pistachios and keep the tray in the refrigerator till it sets. When completely set, cut into pieces. Arrange them on a serving platter and serve.

KESARI JAGGERY RAJBHOG

Ingredients

2 cups cottage cheese

1 tbsp semolina

3 cups grated jaggery

½ tbsp saffron soaked in milk

4 tbsp mawa

¼ cup cashews

¼ cup almonds

¼ cup pistachios

1 tsp cardamom powder

Few drops of yellow colour

Method

Make a powder of all the dry fruits. Knead the cottage cheese and semolina into a smooth dough. Mix the nuts powder, mawa, saffron milk, and the cardamom powder as well. Make a smooth paste of it and add the cheese mixture. Make small balls of this mixture. Now, in a pan, mix jaggery and water. Let it boil till you get a thin syrup. Add yellow colour to this syrup. Put all the cheese balls in this syrup. Cook it on high flame for 10-15 minutes. Let it cool and serve chilled.