Karuppatti Paagu / Palm Jaggery Syrup - Basics

Karuppatti Paagu / Palm Jaggery Syrup - Basics

Karuppatti or panai vellam is known as palm jaggery in English. Panai vellam is the better choice for sweetening agent than white sugar or saccharine or any other artificial sweeteners. It is widely used in Tamil Nadu. Our ancestors had been using karuppatti widely for its medicinal properties. But these days youngsters have heard about this "karuppatti" only in Tamil movie songs..

Karuppatti/Panai Vellam/Palm Jaggery

After realising that karuppatti is healthier than other regular white sugar.. I some how wanted to use it in our regular diet. First time in my life I enquired about karuppatti. I have heard people say that karuppatti goes very well with coffee and tea. As a first step towards starting to use karuppatti.. I learnt to make syrup and store it in fridge. I add the syrup to my coffee, tea, sarkarai pongal and other dishes which calls for jaggery. Believe me.. coffee tastes better with karuppatti syrup. Try once to believe it.

Karuppatti Paagu/Palm Jaggery Syrup

In sarkarai pongal, this karuppatti gives this nice smoky flavour like.. the dish has been made with ingredients with no artificial chemicals at all.. all natural flavours. I felt that it is totally out of the world as this is more intense than cane jaggery.

I used to make this syrup from 500 grams of palm jaggery/panai vellam/karuppatti each batch. Let see the ingredients..

Ingredients:

• Palm jaggery/karuppatti - 500 grams 
• Water - 400 ml

Procedure:

• Cut the jaggery to small pieces. Add water so that the jaggery is immersed. I generally never measure. Just add water to immerse the jaggery.
• Keep this on stove and let the heat be on medium.

• The jaggery slowly dissolves fully as it is on flame. 
• Later the jaggery water starts to boil. Let it boil for 10 mins in medium. 

• The syrup will become slightly thick and little sticky by now. (See to that the syrup is not too thin as it might call for more spoons of syrup for your coffee and you end with your coffee that is not thick). That's it. The syrup is ready.

• Let it cool. Filter it and transfer it into a dry container. I store it in fridge. 

You can now use this syrup wherever you need. I use 1 and  1/2 teaspoon syrup to my coffee. Do not add this syrup in boiling tea or boiling milk. It will curdle. So add this syrup to your tea or coffee at the end. Never boil anything with milk (like coffee or tea) after adding this syrup to it.

The syrup in fruit juices gives a different flavour. It also goes well with any recipe with earthen flavour. 

Let us realise the goodness of natural ingredients. Let us again get back closer to nature. Its good for our planet, our purse, our body and our soul.

Happy cooking !!