Til sesame do us part

The inherent warmth in sesame seeds makes them a perfect addition to our winter diet, writes Kavita Kanan Chandra.

If there’s any seed that’s considered auspicious during festivals, til it is! Til ke laddoo, til barfi, til ki chikki, til pitha, til gajjak, til rewari, yellu bella, yellunde and tilkut are sweets synonymous with Sankranti. The tiny seeds of til or sesame pack a nutritional punch as they are enriched with proteins, calcium, iron, vitamins, and minerals. It naturally warms the body, provides energy, and boosts immunity.   

Sesame is extensively used for making sweets and savoury dishes, seasoning and garnishing for dishes, tempering, making paste and powder. Toasted sesame seeds make for strong flavours, crunchy texture, and pleasing aroma. The til seed tastes sweet, bitter, and astringent with a nutty flavour.

Til gur (sesame jaggery) modak and yellu thengai kozhukattai (sesame coconut modak steamed in rice flour) are prepared during Ganesh Chaturthi. Arisa pitha (anarsa or ariselu) is a traditional rice and jaggery pancake with sesame made during Margasira Gurubara in Odisha while savoury snacks of murukku (Tamil Nadu) and chakli (Maharashtra) are prepared during Deepavali. In the south, a ritualistic til oil bath is taken. Ayurveda recommends til as a good massage oil for the body and hair.

In Punjab, people munch on powdered sesame and jaggery throughout winter. The festival of Lohri comes from the word Tilohri where til means sesame and rohri means jaggery. In Karnataka, Yellu bella — the healthy mixture of roasted chana dal, jaggery, peanuts, dry coconut, and sesame seeds, is traditionally distributed by children during Sankranti.  

Roasted sesame seeds (white, black, or brown) are mixed with heated jaggery to make til ke laddoo, known as rasi laddoo (Odisha), yellunda (Kerala), tilache laddoo (Maharashtra) and others. Puran Poli, made with a stuffing of sesame and jaggery is popularly called tilachi poli in Maharashtra and yellu holige in Karnataka.  

Sesame with pulses is used in making bhakarwadi, khandvi, dal vadi, patodi, tilori and papads. Yellu Sadam is prepared by powdering sesame with a lentil mixture and then mixing it with cooked rice. Yellu sakkarai Pongal is the sweet sesame rice of Tamil Nadu while yellina chitranna is a sesame-flavoured tangy rice dish made in Karnataka. 

In South India, a variety of podi mixtures are made with sesame seeds and dry red chillies that are ground to powder. Mixed with sesame oil, it is added to steamed rice, vegetable stir-fries and an accompaniment to idlis. There are milagai podi (Tamil Nadu), nuvvula podi (Andhra Pradesh), tilachi chutney (Maharashtra), chutney pudi and gurellu pudi (Karnataka), made of black til that goes well with a jolad rotti meal. 

Brinjals and raw banana go well with sesame when preparing Maharashtra’s bharli vangi (stuffed brinjal curry), Andhra’s Vankaya nuvvula (spicy fried brinjal in sesame paste), Hyderabad’s Bagara Baigan and South India’s popular kelyachi bhaji.

Sesame (sesamum indicum) is a herbaceous annual plant, the oldest cultivated indigenous oilseed crop of India. From Asia to Africa to Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico) cuisines, sesame seeds are an integral part of dishes around the world.

Even the Middle Eastern tahini is a paste made of lightly toasted or raw (hulled or un-hulled) white sesame seeds, oil, and salt. It is used in salad dressing, falafel, mixed with hummus, Baba Ganoush (Mediterranean eggplant dip), smoothies, cookies, croissants, and ice cream.

Tahini differs from Chinese zhi ma jiang, the sesame paste made of heavily roasted hulled white sesame seeds. 

There are three different varieties of sesame — black, white, and brown. The Japanese cuisine uses all of these. Goma shio, is an essential dry condiment made by crushing roasted black and golden sesame seeds with salt, while sesame oil forms the base for many delicious dishes. A popular chicken stew, pepian de pollo is inspired by indigenous Mayan cuisine using roasted sesame. 

Did you know black sesame is the most robust one with a distinctive earthy, nutty, and slightly bitter flavour and has a higher oil content? When slightly roasted, the nutty flavour becomes sharper but more palatable.  

Guatemala produces some of the best quality white sesame seeds in the world.

However, with all the goodness of sesame seeds, it can’t be discounted that some people could be allergic to it as well. Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration officially included sesame in its list of major food allergens.