Wheat halwa / Tirunelveli Halwa

Godhumai halwa/ Wheat halwa / Tirunelveli halwa is one among my long dream to make it at home. I always get scared since it is quite long process. I want to try this recipe on special occasion and made it this time for my husband's birthday. As I am from Nellai background, I still remember in my childhood days who ever comes to my house from my native always get us halwa and mixture. These two are common snacks in Tirunelveli along with evening coffee. Originally this halwa is made out of wheat milk, there are some other easy way to make wheat milk but taste will differ from original.

No artificial colour  is used for this halwa. Sugar is caramelized to get original colour of halwa, which is most secret behind this recipe. Only samba godhumai is used to make this recipe. We can make use of whole samba wheat or broken wheat. If whole wheat is used, milk is taken by grinding in blender, similar to how we extract coconut milk. If broken wheat is used, we can squeeze using hands and filter it to take milk.

Soaking time: 8 hrs
Preparation time: 3 hrs
Cooking time: 1 hr 20 mins
Serves : 4 nos

Ingredients:

Broken wheat/ Samba godhumai Rava - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 cups
Ghee - 1 cup
Cashewnut - 10 nos (broken into fine pieces)

Procedure to make wheat milk:

1. Soak 1 cup of broken wheat in 5 cup of water for 8 hrs or over night in a large bowl.
2. After 8 hrs, start pressing and mixing the samba rava using hand and squeeze out the milk.
3. Filter the milk using fine strainer / tea filter and repeat the process again and again by adding little water and squeezing out the milk.
4. Once we get very thin milk, stop the process.
5. In large jug, pour the squeezed milk and rest it undisturbed for 2-3 hrs. It helps in settling the milk down, leaving the excess water above the jug. This water contains fermented taste.
6. Remove excess water and exactly 1 cup thick milk is collected at last.
7. Add 4 cups of fresh water to the thick milk and keep it separate.




Procedure to make Halwa:

1. Heat 2 1/2 cup of sugar and one cup water in thick non stick kadai/ pan.



2. Stir continuously until sugar gets dissolved and boil until thin one string consistency is attained.



3. Stir wheat milk well and add it to sugar syrup. From this point it takes minimum one hour to get halwa consistency.



4. Stir continuously in medium heat for 15 mins until the mixture turns little thick. At this stage start adding ghee little by little about 2 tablespoon and stir again until poured ghee is absorbed.



5. Simultaneously in separate pan add a tablespoon of ghee and fry cashewnuts until golden brown and keep it aside.



6. In the same pan, add remaining half cup sugar and a 2 tablespoon of water to it. Keep stirring in medium flame. It will get melt and start drying again. At this stage lower the flame and keep stirring until it starts caramelizing. Don´t let the sugar get burnt.



7. Add this caramelized sugar mixture to the halwa and stir continuously. This brings the colour of halwa. It will take some minutes for caramelized sugar to get dissolved in halwa.



8. At every ten minutes interval add 2 tablespoon of ghee and keep stirring in medium to low flame. Never keep the flame high.



9. Around 50 minutes, no more ghee will be absorbed by halwa, at this stage add cashewnuts and stir well.



10. At one point, poured ghee will be start leaving the sides of halwa and entire halwa will be non sticky.



11. Remove excess ghee from halwa and switch off the flame.



After it cools down, we can see crispy layer of ghee and sugar coated halwa is ready to serve.

Tips:

1. Entire process of halwa stirring is done in medium to low flame.
2. Don´t burn the caramalized sugar, if so pour it out and again repeat the new process of caramalizing .
3.Around 1/4 cup of ghee can be collected back once halwa is done.