Jaggery

Gor/ ગોળ or jaggery – an elementary ingredient of Gujarati cuisine. It is one food that is celebrated not just on our plates but in our language, literature, life events, social occasions, grandma’s remedies, travels as well as festivals. We have Gor to celebrate new beginnings, mourn the passing on of our loved ones, engagement is called Gor-Dhana named after the ritual of eating jaggery and coriander seeds signalling a ‘yes’ by both the families. We embark upon any journey with grains of gor in our mouth. Everyday meals are incomplete without jaggery. Even a thali meal you eat at a restaurant will have gor-ghee. Gujaratis are notorious for eating fist full of jaggery with meals. Gor-Ghee-Bhakhri that also can be turned into Ladoo is an all time favourite. Gadthuthi/ Ghutti/first drop of water given to new-born used to be jaggery dissolved in water. We also have a countless idioms that wisely weave jaggery and life lessons together. In the bygone days sugar was a luxury while jaggery was a locally available ingredient. Villages would have families making jaggery in the village itself. People woke up to tea made with jaggery, it never had sugar. Breakfast would be flat bread from previous night with some ghee and jaggery, if you crumble them together it becomes churmu/churi and when the charmu is clumped together in a ball shape it becomes our favourite ladoo. Our Dal and subzi are sweetened with gor so are most of our sweets, from Sukhdi to Kheeraj, ladoo, kansar, Raab, Sheero…A very popular Gujarati pickle, the Gor-Keri is sweetened by Jaggery. My Ba always stored Jaggery in earthen pots in the coolest corner of our huge dark larder. ગોળ, those glorious amber coloured mounds of wisdom and nourishment.