Peanut Chikki

January in Maharashtra, the mornings still cold, and the chikki tins come out. Lonavala built a whole reputation on this. Around Makar Sankranti the new jaggery is in and every house makes a batch: groundnuts roasted until the skins crack and split, rubbed clean between the palms, broken roughly in half, then stirred into hot amber syrup and rolled out on a greased thali before it sets. You snap it along the marks and it cracks clean.

With only two things in it, the jaggery is the recipe. Our Organic Jaggery is unrefined, so it gives chikki its deep amber colour and a rounded caramel taste with a slight mineral edge behind it, instead of the flat sweetness of plain sugar syrup. A spoon of Gir Cow's A2 Ghee goes into the syrup and onto the rolling pin, which keeps the whole thing from sticking and leaves a soft nutty note behind the crunch.

The entire dish is decided in about ninety seconds of syrup. Drop a little into cold water: it must sink, set hard immediately and snap when you press it. If it bends at all, cook another thirty seconds and test again. Pull it off early and your chikki stays chewy for ever, because once the peanuts are in there is nothing you can do.

How to make it

1. Dry roast the groundnuts in a heavy kadhai on medium-low for 8 to 10 minutes, shaking often, till the skins darken and split and the nuts smell toasted. Cool them, then rub between your palms and blow the skins away.
2. Break each nut roughly in half between your fingers or with one pass of a rolling pin. Halved nuts pack in tighter than whole ones and the chikki breaks more cleanly.
3. Grease a steel thali, a marble slab or the back of a large tray with ghee. Grease a rolling pin too. Keep the roasted nuts, a bowl of cold water and a spatula right next to the stove. Once the syrup is ready there is no time to look for anything.
4. Melt 1 tbsp ghee in a heavy kadhai on low. Add the jaggery and 1 tbsp water. Stir till the jaggery melts completely and starts to bubble.
5. Keep it on medium and cook for 5 to 7 minutes without stirring much. The bubbles will get smaller and the syrup darker.
6. Start testing after 4 minutes. Drop a few drops of syrup into the cold water. When it sinks and sets into a hard piece that snaps between your fingers, it is ready. If it is soft or bendy, cook another 30 seconds and test again.
7. Take the pan straight off the heat. Add the salt, cardamom, sesame and the groundnuts, and stir fast for 10 seconds till every nut is coated.
8. Tip the whole lot onto the greased thali. Working quickly, spread and roll it out to about half a centimetre thick with the greased rolling pin.
9. Wait 3 to 4 minutes, then mark squares or diamonds with a knife while it is still warm. Cool completely for 30 minutes, then snap along the marks.

Tips

• If your chikki stays chewy, the syrup was undercooked. There is no fixing it once the nuts are in, so always do the cold water test before you commit.
• Storage: keeps 3 to 4 weeks in an airtight steel or glass container at room temperature. It gets crisper on the second day. Do not refrigerate, the damp will soften it.
• Substitution: the same syrup works for til chikki with 1 cup sesame seeds, or a mixed one with almonds and cashews. Roast whichever nut you use first.
• Work fast at the end. Jaggery syrup sets as it cools, so have your greased surface and rolling pin ready before you start the syrup, not after.
• Roll it thinner for a shatteringly crisp chikki, thicker for a chunky one. Half a centimetre is the everyday Lonavala thickness.