THIRUNELVELLI HALWA / WHEAT HALWA

Hi Everyone,

THIRUNELVELLI HALWA!! When you hear the name itself you feel like lip smacking right!!?Yes!!

Actually this halwa history starts from North India (Rajasthan) ..Long ago a merchant from Rajasthan who came to Thirunelvelli prepared this halwa with wheat batter and ghee and sold here , When it came out to be a great success he settled here itself selling Thirunelvelli halwa.Also the unique taste of halwa comes from Thamirabarani river too.Not only halwa is famous in Thirunelvelli all the sweets are popular there , people there proudly says its all bcoz of Thamirabarani river water.

Whatever the reason is we all love this halwa and I want to try it in home . My family has less sweet lovers (Only sweet tooth here is me :)) but my husband loves only one sweet most is Thirnelvelli halwa so I thought of giving a try.Now technologies are improved so we need not spend long time baby sitting and stirring , Life has given us NON STICK KADAI , So it is very easy to make halwa in home.

The secret behind the unique taste is Samba Wheat and add caramelized ghee..After two trials I got perfect taste and colour , and my food critic (husband) approved the taste finally.But I say after adding so much ghee also I feel still the halwa didn’t slipped to throat once placed in mouth but I don’t want to add more and more fat so I stopped adding ghee still the halwa tasted awesome.Its worth a try so better try it in home atleast once and you will surely fall in love with it.

The recipe is as below,

SERVINGS : 1 ½ CUP OF HALWA.

COOKING TIME : 45 MINS.

INGREDIENTS :

Samba Wheat – 200 gms ( 1 cup)

Sugar – 1 ¾ cup

Sugar – 4 tsp ( for caramelizing).

Ghee / oil  – 200 ml.

Cashews – 10 pcs

Raising – 10 pcs

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PREPARATION : 

1) Wash and soak wheat in water for 8 hours or overnight.After 8 hours of soaking you can see the wheat seeds has turned so soft .

SOAKED WHEAT

2) In your blender grind the wheat with little water for few rounds , filter the wheat milk alone using strainer.

3) Again add little water and blend for two more rounds and extract the milk , repeat the process for 3 more times and extract maximum possible milk from wheat .Discard the balance residue wheat.

WHEAT MILK

4) Let the milk stay undisturbed for 7  hours for fermentation.After 7 hours the thick milk will get settled at the bottom , you can pour the water that remains on the top and save the settled milk at the bottom.

THICK MILK

5) In a wide non-stick kadai add the thick wheat milk , 3 cups of fresh water and heat in low flame.

6) In the mean time in a separate pan heat 1 tsp of ghee , add cashews and raisins and fry till golden brown.Keep them separately till our halwa gets ready.

7) Keep stirring the wheat batter until the mixture starts thickening , At this stage add sugar and mix well.

8) Keep stirring for 5 more mins when halwa starts thickening again add ghee little by little and keep mixing.

9) Keep stirring until ghee starts leaving sides of the pan and also the halwa turns transparent and glossy , the halwa should not stick to the laddle. This is right consistency now add fried cashews and raisins and  mix well , switch off the flame.

10)  In a small kadai heat 2 tsp of ghee and add 4 tsp of sugar , keep stirring until the sugar dissolves  and turns to dark brown.

11)   When sugar is caramelized to dark brown colour remove from flame and add to hot halwa and mix well.

12) That’s all… enjoy hot halwa.

NOTES :

1) Caramelizing is important process , it gives the exact taste and flavour to halwa so don’t skip it.

2) You can increase the amount of ghee even 50 ml more to give very silky texture.

3) 200 gms of wheat raised to 2 cups of soaked wheat , and yielded about 1 cup of thick milk.

4) Also samba wheat is main ingredients don’t change it.

 HAPPY COOKING!!