Gur ke chawal, the sweet jaggery rice of a Punjabi winter
गुड़ के चावल
Basmati cooked first, then folded into a quick jaggery syrup with ghee, saunf and cloves. Long, separate, amber grains, and the order that keeps them soft.
Lohri and winter lunches · Prep 5 min · Cook 35 min · Total 1 hr 15 min · Makes 4 servings · Punjabi dessert
Gur wale chawal are what a Punjabi kitchen makes when the new gur comes in: long-grained rice, glossy with jaggery and ghee, smelling of saunf and cloves. They are eaten at Lohri, on cold afternoons, and whenever there is rice left to be made into something better.
They look like a pulao and behave like a sweet, and they have one rule.
Cook the rice before it meets the gur
Rice that goes into a jaggery syrup while it is still firm stays firm, however long it sits on the stove. So the rice is boiled through first and drained. The syrup is made in a minute or two and is never cooked to a string. Then the two are brought together and left on the lowest flame to drink each other in.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (about 200 g) Basmati rice
- 6 cups Water, for boiling
- 3 tbsp Ghee
- 4 Cloves
- 4, lightly crushed Green cardamom
- 1 tsp Fennel seeds (saunf)
- ¾ cup (about 150 g) ShuddhGaon jaggery powder
- ½ cup Water
- 2 tbsp Cashews and almonds, chopped
- 1 tbsp Raisins
Method
- Soak the rice Wash the rice until the water runs clear and soak it for 30 minutes. Drain it.
- Boil and drain Bring the 6 cups of water to a rolling boil, add the rice and cook for 6 to 7 minutes, until a grain breaks easily between your fingers but still holds its shape. Drain it and spread it on a wide plate so the steam escapes.
- Fry the nuts Heat the ghee in a wide, heavy pan. Fry the cashews and almonds until golden and the raisins until they swell, then lift them out.
- Bloom the spices In the same ghee, on a low flame, add the cloves, the cardamom and the saunf. Give them half a minute.
- Make the syrup Add the jaggery powder and the ½ cup of water. Stir until the gur has dissolved and the syrup just begins to simmer, about 2 minutes. Stop there.
- Fold in the rice Tip in the rice and fold it through the syrup with a flat spoon, lifting from the bottom so the grains do not break.
- Leave it on dum Cover the pan tightly and leave it on the lowest flame for 8 to 10 minutes, until the syrup has been absorbed. Take it off the heat and rest it, still covered, for 5 minutes.
- Serve Fluff the rice with a fork, scatter the nuts over it and serve it warm.
With our jaggery
Our powder melts in the half cup of water in about two minutes, with nothing to strain. If you are using cubes or a block, break them up and give them five minutes, then strain the syrup back into the pan. The colour of the dish follows the colour of the pack: a darker gur gives a deeper brown rice. Nothing is added to our jaggery to keep it uniform, so do not expect the same shade twice.
Tips from our kitchen
- Keep the grains whole Use a wide pan and fold rather than stir. Rice that is stirred in a narrow pot turns to mash.
- The saunf is the point It is the flavour people remember. If you leave out one spice, do not let it be that one.
- With leftover rice Plain cooked rice from lunch works well. Make the syrup, fold in 3 cups of cooked rice and give it the same 8 to 10 minutes on dum.
Questions people ask
- Why are my gur wale chawal hard?
- The rice met the jaggery before it was cooked. Jaggery syrup stops rice from softening, so boil the rice until it is just done, drain it, and only then fold it into the syrup.
- How much jaggery for 1 cup of rice?
- Three-quarters of a cup of jaggery powder, about 150 g, for 1 cup of raw basmati. Use a full cup if you like it properly sweet.
- Can I make gur ke chawal in a pressure cooker?
- Cook the rice on its own first, by any method you like. Do not pressure cook raw rice with jaggery: the grains stay hard and the syrup catches.
Worth reading alongside this
The jaggery this recipe is made with
- ShuddhGaon Jaggery Powder Pouch — The same fine gud powder in resealable 500 g and 1 kg zip pouches
- ShuddhGaon Jaggery Powder — Fine gur shakkar that melts into tea, coffee and milk
- ShuddhGaon Jaggery Combo — Cubes for the cup, powder for the kitchen