Winter Pantry Favourites: Make Til ka Chikki at Home

In collaboration with re:store

My sister got married when she was just out of college. In her mother-in-law’s house, she learned how to make the most beautiful traditional Gujarati dishes. I was still in high school at the time, and am still envious to this day of the culinary skills she picked up so deftly. Meanwhile, in my mother’s house, I was still a student but also began, slowly, to pick up recipes and techniques in the kitchen.

Over time, I began to regard not only my mother and my own mother-in-law as culinary teachers, but my older sister as well. My sister’s repertoire is vast. Even to this day, each time I visit her, I insist that she teach me an entirely new dish every time.

I learnt how to make this til-ka-chikki a couple of years ago, with her guidance. And I’ll admit that I am still learning. I don’t quite have the confidence to make it on my own yet, but every experiment has ended in happy mouths and sticky fingers. As with most traditional Gujarati sweets and snacks, this too requires only three ingredients. In this case, they are jaggery, sesame and ghee. If you’d like a vegan version, replace the ghee with any flavourless oil.

Nandi's Recipe for Til-Ka-Chikki (Sesame Brittle)

Ingredients
Makes about 10-15 pieces
½ cup sesame seeds
½ cup jaggery
1 tablespoon ghee

Method
Grease an overturned steel plate and a rolling pin and keep at the ready.

In a wok or kadai, roast the sesame seeds on a low flame. Occasionally increase to a medium flame for short bursts. The sesame will take about 7 minutes to roast. Keep stirring until the colour changes.

Once roasted, transfer to a plate and allow to cool. Once cooled, taste a few seeds to check if they have a crunch to it. This means they are ready.

In the same wok or kadai, add ghee. Then, add the jaggery and stir constantly on a low flame. As with the roasting of the sesame seeds, you may occasionally increase the flame to medium for short spans, but immediately reduce to low again. Take precaution that the jaggery does not burn.

In approximately 9 minutes the jaggery should turn a reddish colour. Once this happens, turn off the flame. Add in the sesame seeds and mix well.

Drop the mixture onto the greased, overturned plate and immediately start to spread it out as thin as possible. You may need to use your fingers (dipped in water), while the rolling pin is coated with ghee. With this combination, try and spread it out in such a way that you mark lines for the pieces later.

Allow the spread mixture, striped with lines to form bars, to cool. Once it has completely cooled, place the plate on the stove and warm from below. The entire piece will come out as a whole.

Break it along the marked lines. Store in an airtight container.

Recipe and photographs by Nandi Shah of re:store

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