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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

What's cooking Wednesday - Sooji (Semolina) Halwa

Last week, I got my new Ceramic Cookplus cookware from Lock and Lock and I was intrigued. I loved the color and it is very different from my existing heavy copper bottomed cookware.

As I couldn't wait to try it out, I made "Sooji Halwa" in it immediately. Here is the recipe for you to try as well.
 

Ingredients
  • 1 cup Sooji (Semolina)
  • 0.5 cup oil or unsalted butter (The original recipe from my mother in law calls for 1 cup ghee, but I have found that 0.5 cup olive oil works just fine for our taste)
  • 1 cup Sugar (Again, the original recipe calls for 1.5 cups of sugar, but we prefer a bit less sugar... your preference)
  • 5-6 strands of saffron
  • 3.5 cups water.
  • 0.5 cup mixed nuts (Optional - slivered almonds, dried coconut, cashews and raisins mix works best, but you are free to omit what you don't like)
  • 3 pods cardamom, broken

 Procedure

1. Soak saffron in a tablespoon of water.
2. Put the water and sugar in a pot to boil. I prefer doing it in the microwave so I can proceed to step 3 while it happens.



3. Heat the oil in the pan on medium heat. This pan heats really really fast, so don't go anywhere... The smoke alarm will call you back though!

4. Add the Semolina and the cardamom seeds and keep stirring it with an enthusiasm of a child picking up candies after the pinata is broken... otherwise the semolina will get burned. Again, this pan was conducting the heat so fast that the step was over in about 2 minutes. Couldn't believe it. Since I forgot to take a pic, here is an old pic for reference on how it would look when done.. 

 5. Add the soaked saffron and boiled water sugar mixture to the cooked semolina. Be very careful while doing this as lots os steam gets created that can burn you. Stir like a crazy person trying to crank up a time machine... otherwise you will end up with lumps.

6. Add the nuts mixture if you decided to use it... Continue stirring like a crazy person... If it makes you feel better, complain to your husband about your arms hurting and make sure to say "I am only doing this for you!" when the reality is that you are craving the halwa as much as anyone else in the house...

7. When the Halwa thickens, turn the stove off (and transfer the halwa pan to another burner if you use an electric stove). Now eat some Halwa before anyone else gets a chance and if anyone complains, tell them that you are tasting it to ensure the quality of the food... works everytime! Then eat it again with everyone else!

ENJOY!!!
Until next time,
Shilpa

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