Recipe: GODHUMAI HALWA

Otherwise known as Wheat Halwa, this is one of my favourite sweets. I remember my grandmother, Pattu Paatti, making this so many times. After all these years, while I handle my kitchen, I appreciate the way in which Paatti took care while cooking anything. I used to think that she took too much tension. Looking back, I realise that it was not tension but a load of respect to the process of creating a dish. Thank you Paatti, for making me aware of the value of great cooking!

Ingredients:

Wheat – 1 cup (soaked in water for about 4 hours)
Water – 2-3 cups
Sugar – 2 ½ cups
Elaichi (Cardamom) – 6 (peeled and powdered)
Kesar – a little
Badam, Kaju, Pista – 3 each (sliced into slivers)
Kesar colour – 1 pinch
Ghee – 1 cup

Method:

Grind the soaked wheat along with water into a fine paste and strain the white milk through a tea strainer or a fine cloth. Grind for 3-4 times till the milk extract is quite thin. Keep the thick milk in one vessel and the last thin one separately.

Take a steel plate or tray and apply ghee to the surface and keep aside. Shallow fry the dry fruit slivers till they are crisp.

Take a thick-bottomed vessel (a pressure cooker or pan can be used) and add the sugar and a cup of water to it. Heat it on the gas till the sugar dissolves. Filter the sugar water before heating it again till it thickens to the consistency of honey. Keep the flame low and add the thick wheat milk extract while stirring non-stop. Add half a cup of ghee while stirring the mixture as it thickens. Make sure that it does not get stuck to the bottom of the vessel. Stir continuously while adding kesar colour, kesar and elaichi powder. The mixture must be quite thick now. Add the thin milk and mix in well. Add the rest of the ghee, fried dry fruits and cook till the mixture begins to leave the sides.

Pour the hot halwa mixture on to the prepared steel tray. Wait for the mixture to cool for a while before cutting the halwa into squares.

You can have the delicious melt-in-the-mouth halwa immediately or wait for Diwali morning!