Jaggery

Gudh







Description:
This coarse unrefined sugar is made from the sap of various palm trees or from sugarcane juice. Jaggery is not purified and therefore has all the quality of the juice itself. It comes in several forms; the two most popular being a soft honeybutter texture and a dark solid cakelike form.

Flavor/Aroma:
Jaggery has a sweet winey fragrance and flavor that lends distinction to whatever food it embellishes. It has a heady aroma and delicious flavour somewhere between brown sugar and molasses. Jaggery has a heavy caramel-like aroma which is slightly alcoholic. The taste is very sweet and mushy.

Jaggery has a special flavour that cannot really be substituted by sugar although brown or demerara sugar is the closest equivalent.

How to select:
Jaggery ranges from mustard yellow to deep amber in colour depending on the quality of sugarcane juice. The former is used to spread on breads and confections while the dark solid version serves to make candies and granola bars called chikki in India.

Use:
Jaggery is used in many dishes. You need small amounts of it for most dishes. The following are some of the examples: For the South Indian "payasam", jaggery is simmered with cooked rice and a variety of condiments and nuts. "Chikki" is made by adding nuts to melted jaggery and cooling the mixture in thin slabs. In rural India, tea is sweetened with jaggery instead of sugar. It is added to vegetables along with spices for the sweet and sour taste found especially in Gujarati dishes. It adds the necessary touch of sweetness to hot curries. It is added along with lentils to make a dough which is stuffed inside whole wheat flour dough to make a heavenly flat griddle bread known as puranpoli. Also, used in Indian sweet dishes like "Kheer"and several deserts instead of sugar because of its nutritious value.

Jaggery is used in traditional and cultural events as a gift to mark sweetness and auspiciousness.

How to store:
Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place.

Health benefits:
Jaggery is believed to have great nutritive and medicinal value and it has the reputation of being a 'medicinal sugar'. It is prescribed for use in the Ayurvedic system of medicine. Jaggery contains proteins, minerals, and vitamins which are essential constituents for the body. It is also a potent source of iron and has a higher iron and copper content than white sugar. Also, it is a superior product among natural sweeteners with regards to the vitamin contents. It is said to purify blood, regulate liver function, and keep the body healthy. It is also very useful in health problems like dry cough, cough with sputum, indigestion, constipation etc. It purifies the blood, prevents rheumatic afflictions and disorders of bile and possesses nutritive properties of high order. Being a completely natural product it's keeping quality is very poor and needs very specific conditions.

Tips:
Tired of using the hammer and knife method to break down large chunks of jaggery, follow the easy breezy method of using the microwave. Microwave large chunks of jaggery in a bowl for 20-25 seconds or so and they are soft enough to be crumbled easily.