Tila chya Mau Wadya- Soft Sesame fudge

January is the time for Makar sankrant and Lohri. The Star ingredients for these festivities is Sesame seeds and Jaggery,. I love the Til wadi, burfi's and Gul Poli that si prepared in many maharashtian homes. Making the Gul Poli required a lot of patience and correct recipe to start with. Any mistake and you end up with the gul/jaggery spreading on the hot griddle making a royal mess to clean. I make Gul POli once during this time every year, as my family loves them. Since I will be having my mom here with me for a few days before she heads back home, I am planning on making them again on this Sunday. I will try if they turn out good to do a step- by step for them, But it is risky to promise as I am still an amateur chef with Gul Poli. These wadis are very easy to make and require less time and expertise and if you boil water you can make them, They are that easy. But am warning you, These pieces are ADDICTIVE, as in highly addictive. IT is seriously difficult to stop munching on these. They have a hot effect on your body, and if consumed in larger portions may start nose bleeds, so Eat little and enjoy more. Surprisingly my Mom never made these while I was growing up. We always had the rock solid Tilache ladoo, where the til/sesame was roasted and jaggery mind you, special jaggery called chikki gul was melted and then while hot the roasted sesame and peanuts were added, and all hands literally all hands big or small were employed to start rolling them while still hot, as if they get cold it cannot be rolled. It was the only family activity I remember form my childhood, where even my dad had no choice but to roll the til ladoo. Then there was haldi kunku day, where all married and unmarried girls were invited to my house, my mom got a southindian amma who catered on such events, and dropping and picking up kids on other days, to make yummy southindian recipes in large quantities. She used to come prepared with the stone ground batters and rest was prepared in your kitchen with your stuff. With her in charge of the kitchen, my mom arranged the vann( Usually a small token of household thing, like bindi packets, spoons, bowls) that she decided to give as gift, get my black dress and her black sadi ready, search for the gajrewala/flower vendor, who came with per-ordered gajras for each girl. The program was slotted for 4-6 pm, most girls came at the same time, ate chatted and exchanged tilgul prompting the famous "tilgul ghya goad goad bola", which means take this sweet and speak sweetly all year round; kind of bhul chuk maaf/ bygone be bygones.

This was when I was in school, when people had time to spare for such activities. Flash forward the time to when I started working in Mumbai, we had the haldi kunku program in Trains. Mumbai trains are jam packed with no space to rest even one foot, forget about standing on two. Amidst all the crowd we did our haldi kunku, sometimes applying haldi kunku to strangers, The containers of halad/turmeric and kunku, a red powder was passed and we took turns applying them on the person sitting/standing next to us,, some of us had got the food to distribute like dry kachori/chips/nuts and then everyone exchanged vann/token with ONLY friends. I am still surprised of how the vann got to the right person in that train, girls are really honest in not taking what does not belong to them. But Tiilgul was for all to share. Since we all got some tilgul, there was always enough for all.

After coming to US, I did not know what to do without the chiki gul. Mr, Ash was disappointed that there would be no tilgul for him nor any Gul Poli. I had no cook book with me, as I knew basic cooking and no one ever thought that I would cook anything else. My uncle gifted a pressure cooker to me saying at least cook dal/rice for Hubby or else poor soul will starve. They still have  a tough time believing that I am cooking all the food and I have a Food blog now.  My friend M came to my rescue as she had a traditional Marathi cook book, and I scribbled the recipe for this soft tilwadi on a receipt/grocery bill. This was the start of my culinary journey. After I was successful in attempting this, I tried Gul Poli and wonders never cease, they turned perfect.


You will need;
3 cups of mashed Gul or Jaggery
3tbspn water
2 cups Roasted Sesame powder-Til
1 cup roasted Crushed peanuts
1 cup roasted Dry Coconut
Elaichi -1 tspn

Add the dry powders + Elaichi and mix well.On low flame, mix the gul/jaggery and water in a pan. Heat on very low flame till the jaggery melts and the mix is sticky. The mix should be slightly sticky to dry fingers.. not very sticky. add the dry mix to this. Grease a cookie sheet with some ghee, and pour this mixture and spread in a thin layer. cut the shape of the wadi and let cool for about two hours. Once cooled , break the pieces and store in  box.

Pictoral is as follows.

ESSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH........Sorry I forgot to take pictures after this step.........I am really sorry please bear with me. But you get the drift, so after adding the dry mixture to the jaggery mixture, stir well and spread on a greased plate and cut the diamonds/wadi's and allow to cool and dig t-in once cooled.

I am sending this to Kavi's Kids Delight event. Originally Started by Srivalli. 
Also sending this to Gayathri's Walk down the Memory Lane event. 
Reva's Sesame event

And to Sensible Vegetarians  Cook Eat Delicious event