Til Chikki

The cooler the kitchen, the better the chikki

Til chikki belongs to Sankranti — the first cool weeks of the year, when the new sesame crop has just arrived and the new jaggery is the colour of pale amber. The chikki sets cleanest in cool air; in summer it goes tacky within a day. The recipe is older than the kitchens that make it. The technique is the entire recipe.

Method

1. Dry-roast the sesame seeds in a heavy pan over low-medium heat. Stir constantly. They are done when they go from white to pale gold and you can hear them begin to crackle — six to eight minutes. Transfer to a plate.
2. Grease a marble slab, the back of a steel thali, or a parchment-lined tray with ghee. Have a rolling pin and a knife ready.
3. In the same pan, add the jaggery and water. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the jaggery melts to a smooth syrup.
4. Continue cooking. The syrup will bubble, then thicken, then turn glossy. To test: drop half a teaspoon into cold water — it should form a brittle, hard ball that cracks when bent. This is the kadak paak stage. Roughly five to seven minutes from melting.
5. Take off the heat. Stir in the teaspoon of Bharat sesame oil. The oil keeps the chikki from sticking to itself.
6. Tip in the roasted sesame. Stir fast — you have under thirty seconds.
7. Pour onto the greased surface. Press flat with the rolling pin to a 5 mm sheet.
8. Score into squares while still warm. Let cool fully — twenty minutes. Break along the scores.

Notes from the kitchen

• Stored airtight, til chikki keeps for two to three weeks in cool weather. In humid weather, eat within a few days.
• The teaspoon of cold-pressed sesame oil at the end is the chikki maker’s secret. It is enough to keep the brittle from cracking unevenly, without changing the flavour.
• For til-gud, the same syrup is poured into small ball-moulds — tilgul — for the Maharashtrian Sankranti greeting: tilgul ghya, god god bola.