image : Priya Q

Indians love their halwas, be it be carrot halwa, kesari / suji halwa or aate ka halwa (made from wholewheat flour). This one just melts in your mouth as your devour it. The best one I have ever had is at the Gurudwara (religious place for the Sikhs) where aate ka halwa is distributed to the devotees as khada prasad. No matter how many time I tried, I must admit I never even was close to the one we get at Gurudwaras! But, it is still doable…so do try it out

Whole wheat flour – 1 cup

Sugar – 1.5 to 2 cups (as sweet as you want!..i generally take 1.5 cups)

Water – 2 cups

Clarified butter / ghee – 1 tbsp

1. Heat ghee in a thick bottomed vessel and add the flour
2. Boil water alongwith sugar
3. Fry at low heat till the flour starts turning slight brown and you can smell its aroma
4. Carefully add the boiled water to above and stir. Please be careful of your hand since the flour starts jumping up!
5. Keep stirring till the cooked halwa leaves the sides of the vessel and almost become one mass. Keep adding teaspoons of ghee if required in between the stirring
6. Serve hot!

Till next time….happy cooking!

The quickest thing to make when you get a craving for sweet… I normally have it as halwa. It’s only in Kerala i saw people setting it and cutting diamond pieces of it to make it look like a barfi. Which I think is a good way to serve when you have guests at home. Besides the recipe also differs. I used to add sugar to the water while boiling unlike in this recipe. Here’s the recipe I picked up from Mini Ammai (Q’s aunt)….

Roasted Semolina (Rava/Suji) – 1 cup
Sugar – 2 cups
Water – 2 cups
Saffron – few threads
Ghee – 2 – 3 Tbsp
Cardomom powder – 1-2 tsp
Cashew – 3 Tbsp
Raisins – 2 tsp

1. Fry cashew in 1 tsp of ghee and keep aside
2. Add semolina to the wok
3. Parallely boil water with saffron
4. Add boiled water to semolina. Cover the vessel and cook it on low flame
5. Open the lid when the whole of water is absorbed and keep stirring
6. Add cardamom powder, cashew, raisins and sugar and keep stirring
7. Add ghee in small amounts in between stirring.
8. It’s almost done if it starts leaving sides of the wok
9. Grease mould with ghee and transfer above into it
10. Apply little ghee on your fingers and pat the halwa into the mould uniformly and keep aside for cooling

When at room temperature cut diamond shapes out of it. Place additional fried cashews on top of each diamond cuts for garnishing and serve

Till tomorrow….happy cooking!

that’s Mini aunt for you…:)