Corn flour Halwa

A halwa is my most commonly tried out recipe. After Dates, Banana, Maida and Papaya halwas, here i am presenting Cornflour halwa which is a no fail recipe. It is very easy to make when compared to the other halwas as the time taken for the mixture to thicken in the pan is very less. Any colour can be added. Here i used a few drops of red rouge edible food colour. A very tasty and easy to prepare Halwa recipe. Enjoy.

Ingredients

Corn flour - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 and 1/2 cups
Water - 1 cup + 1 and 1/2 cups
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cashew nuts - 1/4 cups, chopped finely
Cardamom powder - a tiny pinch
Food colour - a small pinch

Method

Take cornflour in a mixing bowl, add 1 and 1/2 cups of water and whisk it well to avoid lumps.Then add food color and mix well.Keep aside.
In a pan preferable nonstick, take sugar and add 1 cup of water. Allow it to boil and wait till the sugar completely dissolves and become slightly thick. No need to check for any string consistency but make sure the syrup is sticky.
Then add the cornflour mixture, keep stirring in low flame.Stir continuously to avoid lumps while adding.It will first start to form glossy here and there.
Then it will start to thicken and form a glossy texture here and there. Keep on stirring  until you see the halwa texture.Now add ghee and cardamom powder.
Once it is thick and comes together as a whole mass and starts to leave the sides of the pan add fried cashews and switch off. Now transfer the mixture to a ghee greased plate.Let it to set atleast for an hour then cut into squares and enjoy.

Papaya-Lemon Halwa

This one is the best of the halwas that ive ever made. Making a halwa is a difficult task and it makes our kitchen too messy and utensils hard to clean. But i consider these as the minor sacrifices I  make to enjoy its final outcome. I usually make it in bulk quantities and store it in the refrigerator to  eat it whenever i feel like eating. But this time i had only 1 small ripe papaya and the quantity that i got from it was very less. Enjoyed every bit.

Ingredients

Papaya - 1 no
Lemon juice- half a lemon
Sugar - 5 tbsp for medium sweet Papaya (depends on sweetness of Papaya)
Cardamom (Elakka) powder - 1/4 tsp
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Maida - 1/4 tsp
Cashewnuts - 4 nos

DIRECTIONS

Cut and clean the papaya into small pieces and make a fine pulp of it by using a blender(mixer).
Take a pan and heat it for some time.
Mix the papaya pulp, lemon juice and sugar in the hot pan.
Keep stirring the mixture continuously.In the meantime, add water to maida to make a liquid paste.
After stirring the mixture in the pan for 5 mins, add the maida paste to it.
This help in thickening the mixture to desired level.
Add ghee and cardamom powder to the mixture once it starts getting thick.
Take out the mixture from the pan and spread it onto a flat vessel making a 2 inch thickness of the mixture.
Cool and cut the halwa into pieces as desired.

Halwa

Ingredients

All purpose flour 1cup
Sugar 2 1/2cups
Ghee 1 1/2cups
Cardamom powder 1/2tsp
Food color(I used Green) 1/8tsp
Cashews(broken) 1/4cup
Almonds(broken) 1/4cup
Pista essence- few drops
Salt a pinch
Corn flour- 1 tbp

Method 

Mix maida,corn flour,salt and food color with 2-21/2 cups of water ,strain it and set aside.Keep a heavy bottom wide mouth pan on the stove top with half cup of water,dissolve the sugar and let it boil till it reaches single string consistency.
Once the sugar syrup reaches the consistency add in the maida mixture and pista essence and stir it vigorously till it cooks.

Now slowly add ghee with intervals and stir it continuously till the  mixture leaves the sides. Add the cardamom powder and turn off the stove. Fry the cashews and almonds in a tsp of ghee and add half amount of nuts to the halwa.
Grease a tray with ghee and sprinkle the remaining nuts on the tray.Now pour the mixture on the tray and allow it to cool.
Cut into desired shape with a greased knife.

Beetroot Halwa

Ingredients

About 3 cups grated beetroot
3 cups full fat whole milk
6 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp ghee
5-6 teaspoon cardamom crushed
15 to 20 whole cashews
1 tbsp raisins

Instructions

Rnse, peel and grate the beetroots.
In a thick bottomed pan combine milk and grated beetroot.
On a low to medium flame, bring the whole mixture to a boil and then simmer.Keep on stirring at intervals..
The grated beetroots will cook in the milk and the milk will start to reduce and evaporate.
When the milk has  reduced, add the ghee, sugar to the halwa mixture.
Stir well and continue to simmer and cook on a low flame. Keep on stirring the beetroot halwa. Towards the end, add the cashews, cardamom powder and raisins and simmer till all the milk is evaporated. Switch off the burner and serve it hot, warm or cold.

Banana-Dates Halwa

 I had a packet of dates stored in my fridge for a long time . Thinking about how i could finish it off, i suddenly got this idea of a halwa. Looking around, i also noticed some overripe bananas which would surely be thrown away unless I use it today. So there you go, my Banana -dates halwa.  

Ingredients

1 cup mashed overripe bananas
1 cup seedless dates( preferably boiled in water for some time to get a loose texture)
1 cup sugar
2 tbl spn ghee + some more for greasing the pan
1 tbl spn cashews (optional)
Sliced almonds  (optional)
1/2 tea spn cardamom powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Method

Take the mashed bananas and dates and sugar in a thick bottomed pan and heat it on medium high. Add the ghee. Make sure to stir it once in a while otherwise the mixture will stick to the bottom.
It took me little over 30 minutes  since I kept the heat either on low or medium low.
Let it cook till the mixture looks dry and the ghee starts separating from the sides.  Add cashews, almonds, cardamom and cinnamon and mix everything well.

Grease a tray with generous amount of ghee. Pour the mixture over it and smooth the top with a spoon greased with ghee.
When it cools down, cut it into desired shapes.

Ghajar ka halwa

Ingredients

Carrot- 2 smoothly blended in the mixie
Milk - 1 cup
Ghee-1 tbsp
Sugar-1/4cup
Cardamom powder -2 tsp
Dry fruits-2 tbsp

Instructions

In a non stick pan heat ghee.
Once ghee starts melting add blended carrot and saute it for 3 minutes.
Pour milk into the pan and mix it with carrot. Stir occasionally.
Let the milk gets cooked on low flame while stir it occasionally in between.
Reduce the milk to around 50% while cooking it on low flame. Once done add sugar and cardamom powder.
Cook until all of the milk is completely cooked and evaporated leaving behind a nice creamy textured carrot halwa.
Garnish the halwa with some slivered dry fruits of your choice and serve hot or cold.

Dates Halwa balls

Ingredients

Seedless dates cut into fine pieces - 1 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Ghee - 3/4 cup
Cashewnuts; cut into fine pieces & fried - 1/2 cup
Pistachio nuts; chopped - 25 g

Method

1.Mix together milk, sugar and dates. Keep this mixture to boil.

2.When boiling, add ghee.

3.Then  add cashewnuts and pista nuts

4.Cook on slow fire till the mixture is almost dry and the halwa is formed.

5.Remove from fire, spread it on a dish

6. Once it becomes warm, make balls out of it by greasing ur palms with ghee.
Allow it to cool. Serve.