Warming up the winters with Sooji ka Halwa and chai
Warming up the winters with Sooji ka Halwa and chai
........................................................................................................
Sooji (semolina) halwa was amongst the first few things I learnt to cook primarily because it took less time to cook and I loved its mild sweetness. I was never much of a halwa puri breakfast fan as the deep-fried puris don’t sit very well with my tummy. The halwa, however, if homemade, was my favourite with some tea during cold winter afternoons.
Here is how I went about it;
Ingredients:
Semolina (
Sooji) – 1 cup
Sugar – ½ cup
Whole milk – 2 ½ cups
Butter – 100 grams
Egg – 1
Dried coconut – 3 to 4 tbsp (flaked)
Raisins – 12 to 14
Almonds – 12 to14 (chopped)
Edible silver – 2 to 3 leaves
Method:
1. Melt the butter in a pan and mix
sooji to it once melted. Once mixed well, it will become like wet sand.
2. Cook on high heat till
sooji changes colour and you can smell the fragrance of the cooked
sooji. It’s similar to cooked flour in butter for béchamel sauce.
3. Mix half the milk with the beaten egg in a separate pan. Remove the
sooji mixture from the heat and add the milk and egg mixture into it and mix vigorously. Put the pan back on high heat and mix further. Now add the remaining milk and sugar, and mix well.
4. Add raisins to the mixture.
5. Keep mixing till the milk dries up and the
halwa starts sticking together like a bread loaf. This will take about three to five minutes.
6. Remove from the heat and spread it out in a tray lined with parchment paper. Let it cool. The cooking time in total is about 15 minutes.
7. Once cooled, garnish with chopped almonds and coconut. Cut in bite size pieces and dress them with edible silver.