Chukku maanam | Indian ginger candy

Enjoy the Indian ginger candy as a digestive aid or one to help you through seasonal allergies, Though not a cure, this two ingredient chukku maanam is an effective home solution to keep and have.

Have you tried the Indian ginger candy?

This is one of the best to keep for digestion issues. Last week showed the first glimpse of the beautiful spring that is upcoming. Along with the beauty came sniffles and flu. This wiped out any bit of decent digestive powers we had and had us go on the flu busting soup for a couple of days. Nothing worked much, just a lot if weakness and zero appetite. This is when I remembered ammas chukku manam. Amma relied on this with her tummy issues and it works well. Promptly after talking to her we made a small bit that certainly helped us.

What is chukku manam?

Chukku manam us dry ginger candy. The jaggery and dry pounded jaggery are mixed together and rolled into tiny balls. This is consumed as a digestive aid in natural medicine. It is similar to the pudina goli or imli ki goli.

Is chukku just dry ginger?

In the contrary to just being just dried ginger, chukku is more like cured ginger that is further dried. It has more of a spicier kick than regular ginger with a woody flavour. To make these, the fresh finger roots are soaked in slaked lime(calcium hydroxide). This raises the pH to alkalinity and helps in preservation. The ginger is then dried. It forms a rock hard, dried ginger. This is pounded and then powdered to form chukkupodi or sonth.

On this blog, chukku podi is used in the following post

Ingredients to make chukku manam

Ginger powder: chukku or cured ginger powder is a key ingredient in this recipe. This provides the digestive aid and is good to relive symptoms of cold. It is a fine powder in slightly pale woody colour with some fibers in it. You can sift it to remove the fibers if you prefer.
Jaggery: the ginger can be a bit spicy. This is compensated by the sweetness of jaggery. The soft jaggery grated is better to be used. This is like a dough and not a powder. If you have powdered jaggery you may need to add a drop of ghee to get it in a mashable state.

Let’s make dry ginger candy

This a no cook recipe that only needs two ingredients.

Add the jaggery and the powdered chukku into a bowl.
Mash and mix well till the chukku is well distributed and it comes together as a dough.
Pinch off tiny portions and roll them into little balls.
Store in an airtight bottle to consume as needed.

Variations

Amma says you can make this in a couple of ways

Add a bit of tamarind: mash in a bit of taking fruit to the mix.
Mix in a bit of powdered coriander seeds:powdered coriander seed are added to help in the cooling effect.
With milagu and thippali: pound the ingredients with a pinch of black pepper or long pepper. This is an effective cold and flu preventive.

Is chukku manam made for festivals?

Chukku manam is actually made during Janmashtami. I am not entirely sure of the reason but here are two ideas.

Chukku manam is given postpartum to improve digestion.Since the offering and foods are for the new born (who doesn’t eat yet) the mum probably needs a helping hand with it.

Krishna Jayanthi is all about milk, butter ghee and fried snacks. This can be very heavy on the tummy and it needs a helping hand fixing it, this dry ginger candy is does a very good job.
In exploring this context, it will be lovely to keep some for Diwali and Ganesh chathurthi too.

Chukku Maanam

Enjoy the Indian ginger candy as a digestive aid or one to help you through seasonal allergies, Though not a cure, this two ingredient chukku maanam is an effective home solution to keep and have.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10

Course Appetizer, Preserves

Cuisine South indian

Servings pieces

Equipment

mixing bowl.

Ingredients

2 tbsp jaggery grated
1 tsp dry ginger powder chukku podi

Instructions

into the mixing bowl, grate enough soft jaggery to make two tablespoons
Sieve the ginger powder and add to the bowl.
Now combine both together to form a seamless mix.
Shape this into tiny tablets by hand.
Store in small airtight container.

Keyword no cook recipes,, vegan

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Stay connected

Chukku manam reminds one about imli ki goli a lot. Most of these recipes rely on naturally resetting or aiding the tummy to reset itself. These recipes are so easy to make and store and come on handy with seasonal weather changes. Hope it comes handy for your or to improve better digestion with a big meal on a festival day. Don’t miss to comment and rate this almost forgotten recipe. My mum will be pretty happy when she knows she has helped you too.

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