Cover Story:Wheat Halwa
Wheat halwa also known as Godhumai halwa in South India has been a dream of every to make at home. But usually people always get scared to try thinking about the ghee that goes in. Now, here is a very easy recipe for you right from Uttar Pradesh’s kitchen to use and share this Deepavali.
Cuisine: Uttar Pradesh
Ingredients
- 8 1/2 cup Whole wheat (or jaw)
- 8 1 & 1/2 cup Sugar
- 8 8 Cashew nut
- 8 3/4 cup Ghee
Method
- Wash and Soak wheat berries (Jaw) overnight (or 8 hours).
- Drain the water; grind it with 1/2 cup water smoothly.
- Filter it using a large metal strainer.
- Again grind the remain with another 1/2 cup water.
- Strain through a metal strainer.
- Keep the collected milk from the ground wheat aside for 30 minutes undisturbed.
- Drain the excess water.
- n Make sure to use correct sized vessel to ensure draining the excess water easily.
- In a heavy bottomed vessel.
- Heat 1 tbsp of ghee and fry broken cashew nuts until golden brown and keep aside.
- Add 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tbsp of water to it.
- Continue heating in medium flame, while you keep stirring. It will melt, get dry again and then later start changing colour. At this point you should put the flame to low.
- Make sure you stir all the time and not let the flame in high or not let the sugar get burnt. Otherwise the whole halwa may turn bitter.
- n When the sugar syrup turns golden in colour, this is perfect for this halwa.
- Add 1 cup water really carefully as it will splutter. Stir well so that the caramelised sugar gets dissolved.
- It will solidify and float on the top when you pour water. So mix well to almost dissolve it.
- Now add the remaining sugar and mix until it dissolves. Continue boiling until you get one string consistency.
- Wipe a little syrup from the back of the ladle dipped in sugar syrup, using your fingers – forefinger and thumb, a string will form in between your fingers without breaking. Be careful not to miss the consistency, make sure you do it in medium flame otherwise you will get burfi instead of halwa. Add the drained wheat milk.
- Keep mixing as you are pouring. The colour will change as the milk gets cooked.
- Now start adding ghee little by little, say one tblsp at a time and mix until the ghee gets mixed with the halwa for every tblsp. It will absorb (incorporate the ghee) so add little by little as you mix and stir for a minute and repeat the process.
- At one stage, the ghee will not be absorbed anymore; it will be at the sides as such.
- It may take a lot of time, so patience is the key. Never put the flame in high, do in medium flame always.
- Keep stirring, the whole process takes 30 mins roughly.
- Now add the cashew nuts and keep stirring until the whole halwa sticks to your laddle you are stirring and rotates freely.
- Spread it over a greased plate and let it cool down.
- Optionally you can cut it into pieces or spoon it as such to serving bowls.
