Festival Recipes, Snacks

Sankranti Ellu Bella, and so many memories….| ಸಂಕ್ರಾಂತಿ ಎಳ್ಳು ಬೆಲ್ಲ | Heirloom Recipes |

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So many memories…….

This post is long overdue. Its been 13 years since I began blogging, yet simple but nostalgic recipes like
this were always eluding me.

I felt I HAD to preserve this recipe (which is actually not JUST a recipe, but so many memories) before it
vanished away from the dimming contours of my brain 😀 .. Without mom around this year, I wasn’t even sure I would make it, but when I spoke to her, she explained the nuances and tips/ tricks to make them perfect. It looks great now, am sure it would taste good when we partake it after the Sankranti Pooja. 

beware :: long post alert !!

Sankranti Ellu Bella is a traditional, heirloom trail mix of sesame seeds, peanuts and jaggery made for auspicious festival of Makar Sankranti in the state of Karnataka, India.

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Hailing from Bangalore, I was wondering why I didnt take the effort all these years after the marriage, when Pongal festivals / Sankranti only meant making different varieties of Pongal and this was pushed to the backburner !! 

Am glad however I could make it this year….

During Sankrant / Pongal / Bhogi, many more dishes are made from across India – like Undhiyoo from Gujrat or pongal varieties from Andhra Pradesh / Tamilnadu

Some of the dishes made during this festive season are:

How to make Ven Pongal | வெண் பொங்கல் | Khara Pongal recipe
Ven Pongal is a classic dish from Tamilnadu where Rice and lentils are cooked to a pudding consistency. Offered to God at temples or made for a quick breakfast too
Check out this recipe
Ven Pongal is a classic dish from Tamilnadu where Rice and lentils are cooked to a pudding consistency. Offered to God at temples or made for a quick breakfast too
Brown Rice Chakkara Pongal | கைக்குத்தல் அரிசி சர்க்கரை பொங்கல்
Brown Rice Chakkara Pongal is a delicious Brown Rice – Jaggery pudding made in Southern India for festivals and special ocassions. Served as an offering to the Gods.
Check out this recipe
Brown Rice Chakkara Pongal is a delicious Brown Rice - Jaggery pudding made in Southern India for festivals and special ocassions. Served as an offering to the Gods.
Oats Ven Pongal | How to make Oats Pongal
Oats ven pongal is a deliciously healthy twist on the classic Ven Pongal. Also being diabetic friendly, this is a delicious dish for brunch or breakfast 
Check out this recipe
Oats ven pongal is a deliciously healthy twist on the classic Ven Pongal. Also being diabetic friendly, this is a delicious dish for brunch or breakfast

Importance of Til / sesame seeds during Uttarayan

 Uttarayan (aka Tula Sankramanam or Sankranti or Pongal festival) marks the beginning of the harvest season. Sun God is worshipped, and Til (sesame) is one of the prominent offerings to the God. Be it in the form of Gajak, Till Ladoo ( Ellu Urundai) or today’s post – Sankranti Ellu Bella – is offered to
visitors and also friends / relatives.

Til is considered to be sacred in Hinduism and naturally, each region has its own concoction of using
this oil seed in its offerings.

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What is Ellu – bella, and some memories…

Coming back to the recipe – which is almost like a trail mix of various nuts and sesame and jaggery. When I think about this, I see two women slaving over the kersosene stove late into the night (cooking gas was expensive then) and labour intensive stuff like these had to be made on kerosene stoves.

Mom and Pati (my maternal grandmom) finish their daily cooking, and in the dim light of the red oxide – floored kitchen, make this trail mix not by grams or pounds – but by the bucketful (literally!!) .. Preps began atleast a week before Sankranti, and the best of the ingredients were sourced, cleaned – all by hand, and untouched by
the rest of the family till it was offered to God.

Giving and sharing this eLLu Bella was considered to be partaking of others’ happiness and “eLLu Beerodhu” (that is sharing these packets from house to house) accompanied with the piece of cut sugarcane, Sakkare Achchu (Sugar candy dolls), a piece of betel leaf and a few coins. These offerings (or Tamboolam)  covered with a handmade round crochet made by mom taken from house to house, where it was exchanged for a similar set of tamboolam from the neighbour.

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We used to put this away and rush back to the next neighbor till we covered the entire stretch of road. And then the real happiness of munching on these…J

As kids, my sister and I (along with cousins who had dropped in that day) looked forward to munching on these once they were distributed : so much so that once we went back to school the next day, classmates also exchanged their homemade versions of these..

And lunch breaks (we didn’t have any snack break back then) were devoted to chomping on these once the
lunch dabbas were done with, and the hard jaggery, the slightly bittersweet bits of coconut, the nuttiness from the roasted sesame and peanut transported us to a heavenly experience….

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Who heard of vegan, gluten free, nut allergies back then ??

Perhaps the guilt-free snacking and healthy eating led us to appreciate simple pleasures of making ,
distributing and snacking on this trail mix..

I wish my kids would appreciate these simple pleasures of life, and fervently hope that they
take it forward.

It’s a labour of love. Period.

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Prep time :1 hour + 2 days of sun drying | Cook time : 15-20 mins |

Makes: approx. 400 gms of trail mix

Ingredients to make Ellu Bella

  • White Til (sesame) – dehusked – ½ cup
  • Peanuts – ½ cup
  • Copra (dry Coconut) – 100 gms (or 2 small halves)
  • Fried Gram / Hurigadale / Pottu Kadalai – ½ cup
  • Jaggery – 150 gms
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How to make Ellu Bella:

  1. Day 1 :  lightly scrape the outer covering of copra, with a heavy sharp knife, make longish strips and then stack the strips together and cut into small bits.
    Sun dry this on a metal plate for 1-2 hours (take care to sun dry them in a dust free place)
  2. Day 2 : Chop jaggery with the sharp knife into slightly bigger pieces and similarly sun dry them for 1-2 hours
  3. Day 3 : In a dry skillet, roast the peanuts on a very low flame till the skin starts to come off and they brown
    a bit. Transfer to a plate. Cool. Rub these peanuts In a burlap sheet / coarse clean towel and rub together till the skin peels off and all peanuts are broken into half. (You can completely skip this roasting and peeling if using good
    quality readymade unsalted roasted and shelled peanuts).
  4. In the same pan, on low heat, pop the sesame seeds (as they are dehusked they wont splutter), but just warm them for 20-30 secs without burning them. Cool into a plate
  5. Similarly dry roast coconut slivers till just warm. Transfer to plate. Dry roast fried gram for 10-15 seconds till just warm, transfer.
  6. In the end,switch off the stove and dry roast the jaggery for 10-15 seconds (this is optional, but recommended to remove any residual moisture)
  7. Cool all 5 ingredients. In a large clean bowl, mix all of them.
  8. Store them in airtight containers. They keep upto a week on the countertop.

Tips to make this delicious Ellu Bella:

  • If you have any elders / kids who are unable to consume these as such, powder a handful and shape into ladoos with a tsp of ghee. But then the shelf life is only for 1-2 days for the ladoos.
  • Use best quality ingredients to get great results
  • Use dry jaggery (or achchu vellam / Achchu Bella) for jaggery component. Paagu Vellam (or the softer variety) will melt even as you are chopping them.
  • Scraping copra makes the cutting process very simple. Else its really hard to chop the same into bits. If you have an adike kathri (betelnut cutter), make sure you use them to chop the jaggery and copra finely.
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Sankranti Ellu Bella is a traditional, heirloom trail mix of sesame seeds, peanuts and jaggery made for auspicious festival of Makar Sankranti in the state of Karnataka, India.Pin
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5 from 7 votes

Sankranti Ellu Bella, and so many memories….| ಸಂಕ್ರಾಂತಿ ಎಳ್ಳು ಬೆಲ್ಲ | Heirloom Recipes |

Sankranti Ellu Bella is a traditional, heirloom trail mix of sesame seeds, peanuts and jaggery made for auspicious festival of Makar Sankranti in the state of Karnataka, India.
Course Festival Recipes, Snack
Cuisine Karnataka Cuisine
Keyword Ellu Bella, Festival Recipes, High Protein Snack, pongal recipes, Sankranti Ellu Bella, sankranti recipes, Trail mix, uttarayan
Prep Time 2 days
Cook Time 3 hours
Total Time 2 days 3 hours
Servings 400 grams
Author Kalyani

Equipment

  • Knife
  • Cutting Board
  • Bowl

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup White Til sesame – dehusked
  • 1/2 cup Peanuts
  • 100 grams Copra dry Coconut,or 2 small halves
  • 1/4 cup Fried Gram / Hurigadale / Pottu Kadalai
  • 150 grams Jaggery

Instructions

  • Day 1 :  lightly scrape the outer covering of copra, with a heavy sharp knife, make longish strips and then stack the strips together and cut into small bits. 
Sun dry this on a metal plate for 1-2 hours (take care to sun dry them in a dust free place)
  • Day 2 : Chop jaggery with the sharp knife into slightly bigger pieces and similarly sun dry them for 1-2 hours
  • Day 3 : In a dry skillet, roast the peanuts on a very low flame till the skin starts to come off and they brown
a bit. Transfer to a plate. Cool. Rub these peanuts In a burlap sheet / coarse clean towel and rub together till the skin peels off and all peanuts are broken into half. (You can completely skip this roasting and peeling if using good
quality readymade unsalted roasted and shelled peanuts).
  • In the same pan, on low heat, pop the sesame seeds (as they are dehusked they wont splutter), but just warm them for 20-30 secs without burning them. Cool into a plate
  • Similarly dry roast coconut slivers till just warm. Transfer to plate. Dry roast fried gram for 10-15 seconds till just warm, transfer.
  • In the end,switch off the stove and dry roast the jaggery for 10-15 seconds (this is optional, but recommended to remove any residual moisture)
  • Cool all 5 ingredients. In a large clean bowl, mix all of them.
  • Store them in airtight containers. They keep upto a week on the countertop.

Notes

Tips to make this delicious Ellu Bella:

  • If you have any elders / kids who are unable to consume these as such, powder a handful and shape into ladoos with a tsp of ghee. But then the shelf life is only for 1-2 days for the ladoos.
  • Use best quality ingredients to get great results
  • Use dry jaggery (or achchu vellam / Achchu Bella) for jaggery component. Paagu Vellam (or the softer variety) will melt even as you are chopping them.
  • Scraping copra makes the cutting process very simple. Else its really hard to chop the same into bits. If you have an adike kathri (betelnut cutter), make sure you use them to chop the jaggery and copra finely.
Tried this recipe?Mention @sizzlingtastebuds or tag #sizzlingtastebuds!

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26 Comments

  1. Lovely post Kalyani. So many memories are associated with food and it was really nice reading your post.
    Ellu bella is such a nutritious and healthy snack.

  2. I always feel food with memories is the best kind. Good to read about your memories 🙂

  3. cookingwithsapana

    Ellu bella looks very healthy snack and perfect to munch on in cold days.

  4. Priya Suresh

    Omg, wat a post and lovely memories, seriously enjoyed reading.. Ellu bella is definitely a healthy snack.

  5. wow loved all the clicks. Where did you get the serveware from?

  6. I remember enjoying this ellu bella but sadly, I no longer make this here.

  7. Suma Gandlur

    Makes me nostalgic. Used to love ellu Bella as a kid.

  8. Sandhya Ramakrishnan

    Love to read the different traditions and absolutely gorgeous clicks!

  9. Gayathri Kumar

    Love your write up Kalyani. I lived in Karnataka for nearly 8 years and your post is bringing back beautiful memories.

  10. Chef Mireille

    what a nostalgic and well written post – really loved reading it

  11. Hi, do u hv recipe for sarkkare acchu (i think kannadigas prepare these too during sankranti)? TQ

  12. 5 stars
    Kalyan what a lovely nostalgic post! You took me back to the time when cooking on the stove was the norm and grandmother was incharge of the kitchen. I have never made ellu bella like this before your recipe will be my guide. Thanks.

  13. Mayuri Patel

    5 stars
    Brings back childhood memories when a similar preparation was made at the temple and offered as prasad. The only difference is that instead of jaggery, rock sugar was used. This gives me an idea what to make for this Makar Sankranti.

  14. Neha (My Culinary Expressions)

    5 stars
    I agree that some heirloom recipes are more than just recipes. They bring back memories of the past- are reflections of our culture and traditions. We have to preserve such recipes. Ellu bella as you rightly mentioned is somewhat like a trail mix. Will try it out. It is healthy and good snacking option. Loved the post.

  15. Jayashree T Rao

    5 stars
    Lovely post, our generation has done and seen all these traditions. Eating the sugarcane pieces would be the hardest thing of all. II am yet to make my Ellu Bella. Happy festivities…Kalyani.

  16. Seema Sriram

    5 stars
    When beleobbattu is there at home, everthing else moves aside and makes place for the star. I still am a long way from perfection of this recipe, but will keep trying till I get there.

    • I so agree of it being the star. I am also miles away from perfecting, this is amma’s making and like i mentioned in the post, I only captured it 🙂

  17. Priya Srinivasan

    5 stars
    Lovely memories kalyani! Good food always has great memories. We are blessed to be part of such beautiful pockets of life. Ellu bella looks super inviting, this is one trail mix i cannot stop myself with just one serving. A rainbow of textures.

  18. 5 stars
    I am a huge fan of ellu Bella. The healthy snacking option is so delicious and I can never say No ..loaded with the best of healthy and nutritious ingredients ellu Bella recipe is a treasure that our ancestors have left for us. The modern day trail mixes and protein bars come no where close to this .

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