Wheat Halwa/ Tirunelveli Halwa

To begin with, I am posting the recipe of a sweet - the ever famous wheat halwa or Tirunelveli halwa. So, what's the difference between Bombay halwa and Tirunelveli halwa? Bombay halwa has the addition of gelatin to gain the stiffness it needs. Tirunelveli halwa just uses wheat and the rubbery texture to it is imparted by the gluten present in the wheat. I got this recipe from my perima; she made and brought this to me when I was pregnant. It was yummy! So, here we go to the recipe...

Ingredients

• Broken wheat/Samba wheat rava - 1 cup
• Sugar - 2 cups heaped + 1 level cup
• Water - 2 cups + as needed to soak
• Cardamom/elaichi powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Nutmeg powder - 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
• Kesari colour - A pinch
• Ghee - 4 to 5 tablespoons

Note: 1 cup mentioned here is 1 measure using any size of cup.

Method

•   Soak the broken wheat rava in water for 1 hour.

• Meanwhile, fry some cashews in some ghee and keep aside. Grease a tray with some ghee and keep aside.
• After 1 hour, drain the water from the soaked samba rava. Empty the soaked rava in a mixie and add 1 cup of water to it and grind till smooth. Strain the ground rava to get a milky substance (this is the main ingredient of the halwa).
• After straining, take the rava pulp, add the other 1 cup of water and grind it, and then strain it again in to the vessel. You discard the remaining pulp (which will not be much).
• In a pan (preferably nonstick) add the sugar and pour water until the sugar is immersed. Mix it in low flame until the sugar dissolves completely. There is no need to get any syrupy consistency.
• Now, pour the samba rava milk in to the dissolved sugar and mix. Add kesari colour at this stage.

• Mix well and add the cardamom, cashews and nutmeg powder at this stage.
• Keep mixing well; add ghee little by little while constantly mixing. In some time, the halwa will separate out from the pan and roll up together.

• Add a little more ghee and then switch off the flame when the halwa comes out clean and nonsticky.
• Pour it on to the greased tray and make pieces. Garnish with some more cashews if needed.
• For me, the pieces came out in good shape only the next day. But the taste was good enough.