Reori

The winter sweet of the Indus plain, eaten from Lahore to Amritsar at Lohri and Basant: toasted sesame seeds layered around a core of cooked sugar and pulled into small, knobbly, pale gold pebbles that crackle and dissolve into warm, nutty sweetness, the seed of the region where it was first farmed turned into the treat of the cold months

Origin: Punjab (Lahore and the Indus plain), Pakistan

From the journey of Sesame.

Reori (also spelt revri or revdi) is the toasted-sesame sweet of the Punjab and the Indus plain, the very region where sesame was first brought into cultivation five thousand years ago at Harappa. It belongs to the winter, scattered by the handful at Lohri and Basant alongside gajak (sesame brittle), peanuts, and popcorn around the bonfire, and the old walled cities of the plain, Lahore above all, are famous for it. Each little nugget is built up in the traditional confectioner's way, a core of cooked sugar rolled again and again through toasted sesame until it grows into a knobbly pale pebble. Because the Punjab was a single region before 1947, reori is shared heritage on both sides of the border, beloved in the Pakistani Punjab and across northern India alike. It is the homely, regional face of the seed whose grander forms became the tahini of the Levant and the halva of the Ottomans.

Ingredients

  • 200 g white sesame seeds
  • 200 g caster sugar
  • 80 ml water
  • 0.5 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1 tsp ghee, for greasing

Method

  1. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry, heavy frying pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes until evenly pale gold, fragrant, and just beginning to pop. Tip onto a warm plate and keep nearby; warm seeds coat far more readily than cold ones.
  2. Lightly grease a marble slab or large board and a metal scraper or spatula with ghee.
  3. Put the sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat. Cook without stirring until it reaches the hard-ball stage, about 122°C on a sugar thermometer: a little dropped into cold water forms a firm, hard ball that holds its shape.
  4. Stir the cardamom into the syrup, then pour it out onto the greased slab. Let it cool for a minute at the edges until just cool enough to handle, then, with greased hands, gather it and begin to pull and fold it repeatedly, working in a little of the toasted sesame with each fold.
  5. When the mass has cooled enough to hold a shape and is well studded with sesame, pinch off small pieces and roll each between your palms through the remaining toasted seeds, pressing so they stick, to form pebbles about 2cm across.
  6. Set the reori on a greased tray to cool and harden completely, then store airtight.

Notes

Reori keeps for two to three weeks in an airtight tin and is made in quantity for the winter festivals. The hand-pulling is the traditional artisan technique; for a simpler home version, cook the syrup to the hard-ball stage, stir in all the sesame and cardamom at once, press the mixture thin on a greased tray, and break it into rough pieces once set, which gives a sweet closer to gajak (sesame brittle). Use a good, fresh sesame: the seed is the point. Jaggery may be used in place of some of the sugar for a deeper, more rustic flavour.

The Gastrographer

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