Jaggery Spread

Jaggery or gur is one of those food items that comes cloaked in a little mystery. For the record, its unrefined sugar from the jaggery palm. Cooking with it gives food a molasses or caramel type quality. Usually used in desserts but equally good in savoury dishes chiseled from the block it comes in. This recipe is from journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's The Settlers Cookbook her memoir on the little known Ugandan-Indian diaspora that settled and prospered in East Africa in the 19th century until Idi Amin expelled them in the 1970s after the military coup.


Ingredients

4 tbls Jaggery
4 tbls Butter

Heat up equal amounts of jaggery and butter. As soon as it starts to sizzel take off the heat. Immediately spread over warm chapatis or stir into a freshly made dhal. If the spread is left to cool for about 20 minutes it will turn into a delicious fudge to accompany some tea.

Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.