Wheat Halwa / Tirunelveli Halwa / Godhumai Halwa for ICC July 2011

This is my first experience participating for the ICC,and this month's challenge is very interesting and am happy to start with a traditional sweet.which is a hit in every household.."Tirunelveli Halwa"..

Srivalli  is the person behind this wonderful event so we can recall these traditional recipes in our very own kitchen..This time they have given three recipes for reference:

1. Shalini's Wheat halwa
http://sanctifiedspaces.blogspot.com/2011/07/wheat-halwa.html

2.Sowmya's Wheat Halwa
http://www.creativesaga.com/2009/09/godhumai-halwa-popular-tirunelveli.html

3.Lataji's Wheat Halwa
http://lata-raja.blogspot.com/2009/11/tirunelveli-halwa.html

I've selected the 1st recipe from Shalini- Wheat halwa,because i just wanted to try with a smaller quantity and this had the measurements..

Now going to the recipe:

Ingredients:

Samba wheat grain- 1 cup

Sugar-2 1/4cup(this quantity was sufficient )

Elachi powder- 2tsp

Water-3/4cup (for syrup)

Water-To grind and extract wheat milk-4 cups

Red/yellow food colour-2pinches

Cashews-handful

Ghee-150gms

Wheat milk-you can see the thicker part getting settled down..
but i mixed this  before adding to the syrup

Sugar and water.

After removing impurities the sugar syrup is boiled to get one string consistency

Method:

1.Soak Wheat grain for 48 hours and wash and grind with 1cup of water .

2.Extract milk by adding 1tumbler of water to get thick extract and then another two cups to get thin extracts and discard the brown mass.

3.So mix all the extracted milk because you'll need it to delay the process of thickening as you stir it.

4.Take a heavy bottomed vessel with handle,I used my 5lt pressure pan for this purpose,heat the measured sugar with 3/4th cup water and stir till sugar dissolves..Now you need to remove the impurities from the sugar either by filtering it or add few tsp of milk to the syrup so when it boils the dirt will collect as scum on the top and you can remove it easily..

5.Now let the syrup boil and reach 1string consistency,it took some 20 minutes for me.

6.Then stir the wheat milk once before adding so all the thick and thin part get evenly mixed and then add it to the sugar syrup while you stir to avoid lumps.add the elachi powder and food colour.

7.Then keep stirring the mixture and as it thickens,keep the flame low.

8.Add a tsp of ghee in another kadai fry the cashews and add to the halwa.Then melt the rest of the ghee and keep it ready.

8.When the mixture starts to thicken start adding ghee,2tsp at a time and then keep stirring  adding ghee in  regular intrevals until the mixture forms a ball and leaves the sides of the vessel..this took around an hour for me and keep stirring to avoid the mixture from burning and the raw smell of the wheat milk is completely gone.

9.Then allow to cool and transfer to a clean,dry container..and serve hot/cold.

10.We thoroughly enjoyed this dish.....

wheat milk+ sugar syrup

starts to thicken

Add caption

on adding a few spoons of ghee

bubbling !!

almost done

U can see the halwa leaving the sides of the vessel.