Wheat Halwa | Tirunelveli Halwa Recipe | Diwali Recipe

I heard a lot about Tirunelveli Halwa but tasted it only when my colleague from Thirunelveli joined my team and every time he goes to India this halwa comes back with him in kilos from the famous Thirunelveli Lruttukadai ( Iruttukadai translates to dark shop).  Well this seems to be the most famous shop selling this halwa and been for generations.  Ofcourse along with this shop story there are plenty of other story we would gossip but we shall not go there.  Frankly speaking I’m not a big fan of halwa specially store ones as it’s too sweet for me, whenever my colleague will pass me the halwa pack I will give to some friends.  Well you think then why on earth I make this halwa, it was meant for one of my other colleague to whom unfortunately I couldn’t pass this!


What my colleague gets from this famous shop looks like exactly this in colour and texture so if you think why the halwa is not in orange/yellow or red colour then I haven’t seen this halwa in those colour personally, here I did what I have seen n tasted.  You can use any food colour of your choice no argue about it.  I made this during night so no stepwise pictures this time. Try this recipe during this Diwali season and wow your family and friends.
And ya, this happens to be my 250th post, yahh I have come this far.  Thanks to readers, bloggers and friends for your support.


Ingredients:
Wheat Berries/Whole Wheat – 1 Cup
Sugar – 2 Cups [ I used 1.5 cups]
Water – 1/2 cup
Cashewnuts – 1/4 cup
Ghee – 3/4 Cup
Cardamom Powder – 1/2 tsp
Food Colour – a pinch [ I used mix of orange and red]


Method:
1. Clean, rinse and soak wheat berries with enough water for minimum of 8 hours or for 24hours.  I soaked for around 15 hours.
2. Rinse again soaked wheat and grind in grinder/mixer or blender with water until it become coarse paste white in colour.  Use a sieve to filter and extract milk in a bowl.  Repeat the step again, grind the remaining fibrous wheat with water and extract milk, discard the remaining wheat. 
3. Cover the bowl and let it ferment overnight. 
4. In a heavy bottom pan (pressure cooker works best here) add water and sugar, cook on medium flame and prepare 1 thread consistency sugar syrup.  Add food colour and mix well.
~ To check sugar syrup consistency, after sugar dissolves in water and starts to boil keep stirring the mix.  Dip hand in a bowl of water, then touch the sugar syrup with index finger (careful not to get burn as it will be very hot).  Press index and thumb finger together and slowly move the fingers apart you can see a string forming between fingers this means our sugar syrup is ready. If not, let syrup cook for a minute more and do the checking process again. 
4.  Once sugar syrup is ready reduce flame to slow and add extracted milk slowly and keep stirring.  This is the important part we can’t stop the stirring process.  Once it thicken slightly, add cardamom powder and 1 tbsp of ghee and keep stirring.
5. After each minute of stirring add 1 tbsp of ghee and stir again repeat this until you use 3/4 cup to 1 cup of ghee each time adding only 1 tbsp of ghee.  After around 20-25 minutes the halwa will be glossy, forms a mass and doesn’t stick to pan anymore then it’s done.  Add cashew and stir again well. 
Would you like to have some?


If you want to cut into pieces then pour the halwa on a greased plate while it’s still hot and allow it cool then cut in desire shape.  But then it’s a halwa why we want to make the halwa in to burfi !  Anyways I tried to cut few pieces for you guys


Yes, it sure a lengthy and tedious process but then if you like the halwa then it’s all worth it.  You can start with small quantity like 1/2 to 1 cup of wheat then doing in a large amount.


Have a nice day ~~