• Whole Wheat (wheat grains) - 1 cup
• Sugar - 2 cups (You can increase to suit your taste)
• Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
• Ghee - 5 tablespoons (You can increase if you like)
• Saffron colour or Saffron strands - 1 pinch or abt 5
• For Garnish:
• Your choice of nuts roasted in ghee

Then drain wheat and add 1 cup of water and grind in mixie. Strain through a sieve to get the thick milk. Add another cup of water and grind it for another 2 mins. Strain and repeat process till you get the husk left behind. It took me about 4 times.

Heat a heavy bottom pan or Kadai. Add the sugar and the milk and cook on slim. Its very important to cook in sim, else it will get lumps. Only mistake I did was to let it unattended when the wheat milk started gathering. Then I had to press it down to remove the lumps.

You got to keep stirring continuously, until the milk starts thickening. Add the saffron and cardamom powder. Then add the Ghee. Keep stirring and cooking on sim. Its done when you can roll the halwa into a ball.

But you also should see if the ghee is oozing out on the sides. Add the nuts and mix well.

The consistency is very important if you want to cut them into shapes. If you add more ghee and allow it to be cooked a little longer, you will get the consistency as of Tirunelavi, though I am sure the Traditional sweet has more to its secrecy!

Anyway I was glad that I attempted this halwa, though I am not sure I will want to try again because of its tidious process, but its worth the efforts.

by Pak101.com (few years ago!) / 1149 views