TilO!

Photo credits: www.thespruceeats.com & www.wikipedia.org
Memory tags: Memory tag: Simply had to connect my yen for Sesame, and Tilo was born!

Black and white are ever contentious! Yet they live in perfect harmony as the tiny pearl drop shaped seeds of the sesame or til. A seed that has been one of the earliest spice seeds to be domesticated. These tiny aromatic fruits and oily seeds are herbaceous plants that include caraway, cumin, fennel and poppy. According to NI Vavilov the primary gene centre from which this crop spread was Africa. This is also true for the watermelon and cotton. Interestingly the potato, tomato, brinjal, pepper, digitalis and tobacco are close relatives.

Tilottamma is the Mistress of Spices in Chitra Devakaruni’s book. Traditionally it means an ethereal beauty or acme of perfection. I love to shorten it to TilO! The oil from this little seed is one of the best skin conditioners. Used in body massage, it is said to penetrate to the very bone, gathering toxins on its way to be eliminated from the body as waste. Its high oleic acid content neutralizes oxygen radicals which are major causes of aging. Little wonder, it is associated with ageless, ethereal beauty! Sesame oil darkens hair and helps hair to grow. Rapunzel, Rapunzel, was this your secret ? Its zinc and calcium content adds a glow of good health. Cholesterol is lowered by its high level of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Naturally occurring antioxidants like sesamin, sesmolin and sesamol give it a long shelf life and stability! A very self contained lady this !Little wonder then it is called the good oil and widely used in the southern parts of our country !

Its lovely nutty flavour is a perennial favorite. In this season between the monsoons and winter, when the weather is fey with a touch of both; childhood memories come rushing back! My father’s clean, white large hand kerchief full of extra til laddus, made with molasses. This, after having had a generous helping of them from the Durga puja offering! Later, I bought them from Saraswati, whose ever graceful figure swayed under a large basket of these delicacies in Santiniketan. Her visits to our home were time for finger licking indulgences and sometimes rare stories from her hoard. An entire world of food and stories revolve around the sesame! The Romans added it to their Hummus. A picture from a 4000 year old Egyptian tomb shows bakers putting sesame seeds on dough. Ancient Greek soldiers carried sesame seeds as energy boosting rations! Who can forget the first thrill of reading Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves? The Delight of Arabian Nights reverberates in the Open Sesame mantra now multiplied across the country in television shows shouting Khul Ja Sim Sim!

The seed also called benne is harvested from the plant Sesamum indicum, an erect annual of the Pedaliaceae family comes in many types and varieties. It varies in height form half to two and half metres , depending on where it is grown. India , Thailand (where it is called teel!),Egypt, Brazil and Central America are major growing areas. Considerable hard labour is needed to harvest the dry seed capsules that burst open and to prevent harvest loss, this makes the seed a little expensive! A nonscattering mutant was discovered in 1943, making mechanized production of this crop a possibility. Hulled seeds are creamy or pearly white, about 3mm long, flattened and tear drop pearl shaped! Ah! Those seeds! Time for tea, cakes, and the chatter of friends , this Sunday afternoon…..

......A Sesame, Cinnamon Topped Cake

Ingredients
½ cup butter or margarine           11/2 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar           2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs beaten           Pinch of salt
½ cup milk          ½ tsp cinnamon powder

3 tsps white sesame seeds

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, dry ingredients and milk alternatively. Pour batter into 10” by 12” by 2” baking dish. Mix 2 teaspoons sugar, cinnamon powder and sesame seeds. Sprinkle evenly on top of batter. Bake at 180 degrees centrigrade for about 20 mins or till a done. Cut in squares and serve .

A lady once taught me to make and relish, fresh chutney made of black, roasted sesame seeds sparked with green chilies and grilled tomatoes to add a tang! She was flabbergasted, that I later added in a small measure of garlic. To her, this was equivalent to desecrating the unique bitter sweet flavor of the unhulled til!

Sesame oil burnt in votive lamps consecrates worship, especially to Sri Hanuman. Many a yajna is incomplete without offerings of til. It even is said to have powers to drive away evil spirits! O TilO! If I were to write a symphony to you, what would I sing of?

Long civilized , cultivated human companion; elegant, beautiful! Perfect, for absorbing and radiating the energy of life, in its incarnation as a seed. Flavour, zest and goodness, to enrich the lives of all those that come touch with her! For, life begets life, TilO !

Main references:

1. Wikipedia
2. Encyclopedia Britannica
3. www.NDTV.com/Food, “Sesame Seed (Til)Benefits: 10 reasons to include til in your daily diet and how to do so”.
4. “What’s Cooking in Bombay” compiled by The American Woman’s Club of Bombay, 1957, Bombay.