What Are Jaggery and Gur?
Jaggery and gur are similar types of unrefined sugar. The two names are often mixed up but they are both types of natural, unprocessed, sugar that you use in various types of cuisine.
Jaggery is made from cane sugar and gur is made from palm sugar (traditionally, the date palm is used but nowadays the sago and coconut palms are also used to produce gur – it’s the tree that supplies the sap, not the fruits).
Both jaggery and gur are made by simmering the sugar cane syrup (or palm sap) in large pots until the sugar hardens. The sugars are sold in blocks (that can be bought from your local Indian supply store) and the darker the color, the better.
The preparation process does not use any chemicals and the sugars retain a lot of natural mineral salts (which are lost when traditional sugar refining takes place).
Jaggery and gur are both used in Indian cooking, in both sweet and savoury dishes. The most obvious uses are to make candy or to add to dal in order to give the dish a good flavor balance.
Here’s a recipe for a delicious jaggery caramelized walnut.
Ingredients:
3 ½ oz jaggery
2 oz walnut halves (with the shell removed)
Method:
Gently heat the jaggery in a small pan, stirring often, until the jaggery has melted
Add the walnut halves to the pan and mix well so that the walnuts are well coated with the jaggery
Quickly pour the walnuts and jaggery onto baking paper and spread evenly with a knife
Let the jaggery cool
Break into bite-sized pieces
Store in an airtight container
Easy and delicious.
