Sankranti Cookies

I have just learnt that I have to work tomorrow, on Sankranti. Sniff! :'( The thought of loosing any holiday to work is sad enough to have it happen close to a weekend is just unfair!

Faced with such a grim weekend, there was only one thing to do - Bake. Keeping in mind the festival I thought Id bake Sesame Cookies. And it had to be egg-less because of my aversion to eggs and because its a festival day.

I tried my best and came up with no eggless sesame cookies that was good enough for the lazy baker. I did however find this nice blog and this recipe which I modified.

Refer to the original site for the recipe.

My modifications:
1. I halved the quantity and made 11 cookies.
2. Substituted crushed almond skinless for cashews ( I roughly crushed around 10 cashews in a mortar and pestle - skinning almonds is just too much work)
3. I added 4 table spoons of fresh grated coconut ( which I took straight from the freezer - no time to thaw )
4. I added a few drops of vanilla essence
5. After flattening the cookie ball I dipped them in white sesame seeds to cover and placed in oven.

I baked on butter paper. Done in a jiffy and with no mess too.

Results: Crisp cookie ( soft when out of the oven, leave to cool and harden ). Sweetness is just right. I think i could have added more cashews. A kind of good-day biscuit like taste. :)
Out of the 11, there are only 3 left at the time of posting this blog - i think that speaks for itself.

Wikipedia informs us that in Karnataka it is called 'Yellu-Bella'. Yellu means 'til' or Sesame seeds and 'Bella' is Jaggery. Traditionally a mixture of sesame seeds, jaggery, coconut and groundnuts are distributed to relatives and friends. ( This cookie covers everything expect the peanuts - jaggery is basically from the same stuff as sugar - not bad no ? )

There is a saying in Kannada "Yellu bella thindu olle maathadi" which means 'Eat the mixture of sesame seeds and jaggery and speak only good'.

Happy Sankranti to you all.

Makara Sankranti

iForNature wishes everyone a very Happy Sankranti!



Being brought up in cities ( Mumbai / Bangalore / Dubai ), the harvest festival meant a holiday, sleeping in late, yummy food and visitors who would drop by with packets of 'til' (sesame) and 'good' ( jaggery ).

Brief history
The day on which the sun begins its journey northwards is referred to as Makara Sankranti. Sankramana means "to commence movement". It is about transition of Sun into Capricorn (Makara) on its celestial path.

Interestingly, this is the only festival in Hindu calendar that follows a solar calendar and is celebrated on the fourteenth of January every year (all other Hindu festivals are computed using the lunar calendar)

In Hindu belief, a person dying on this auspicious day directly goes to the heaven. Bhishma, an elder in the epic of Mahabharata, is said to have waited for this day to breathe his last. He had obtained a boon from his father Shantanu that enabled him to choose when he wanted to die.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makar_Sankranti
http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/festive/jan14.htm

The common practice in most villages is to do a thorough cleaning of the houses, decorate the cattle, buy new clothes and ornaments.

Hoping to do something similar, Keshav and I went shopping yesterday (ok, I confess, I just needed an excuse). We also spent some time cleaning our camera equipment which was dusty from the BRHills excursion.

In light of the festival, I have also decided to harvest my small crop of coriander that I'm growing on our terrace. :D

As I write this post, there is a gentle drizzle outside, and this, after I just watered the plants!