A festive trail mix of roasted peanuts and sesame seeds, dried coconut and diced jaggery made especially during Makara Sankranthi festival in Karnataka
This one is a little messy, but the best way I've known. When peanuts are completely cooled, place a gunny bag or burlap rag on a flat surface and pour some onto the center of the gunny bag. Rub one end of the rag over the peanuts until the skin loosen out. Blow away the husk, separate the nibs (the tiny piece at the growing tip of the peanut) and discard. Transfer only the cleaned white peanut halves to a large bowl. Peanuts will be a light brown in color without burnt spots, when roasting is done right.
Cut whole copra into halves and grate the outer brown skin off until it is white on the whole. This is mainly to make it more palatable i.e., keep it from getting lodged between teeth pockets. Small dice copra pieces to about quarter the size of peanuts as shown in the picture above. A sharp knife with a wide blade like the Santoku knife comes in handy to chop it up in less time.
As the recipe is a simple medley of ingredients, cannot stress enough on the use of quality ingredients.
Buy healthy looking peanuts without visible signs of worms (white cob web kinda thing is a sure shot sign of worm)
If unsure about whole copra, buy copra halves that look clean and not brown. Brown ones indicate that they are old and most likely will be hard and difficult to chop or bite.
Dark brown jaggery blocks or cubes (darker the better) are preferable over the lighter ones as the latter are usually bleached.
*I would have preferred to use natural white sesame seeds (unhulled, skin intact). However, I read that when used in large quantities, the oxalate content in them can cause harm, especially to those on oxalate restricted diet (those who are predisposed to kidney stones). Hulled (husk removed) seeds are better tolerated and digested in larger amounts.
Ellu bella is best consumed within a week to ten days as the roasted nuts and seeds tend to turn rancid soon at room temperature.
Making sure that the skillet or kadai is absolutely hot before beginning to roast is important to ensure roasting is even and gets done quickly.
When making a smaller quantity, gunny bag is not necessary to remove peanut skin, comes handy for larger quantities though.
Roasting peanuts is possible even in the conventional oven if you have.
For the waste conscious, peanut husk can be used for composting. If you are wary of those tiny bits getting into your teeth pockets, just pulse them all together in a mixer, roll them into Laddoo and enjoy!