Kitchen Tantra

Almonds Halwa:

Badam Halwa. Badhaam Halwa. Badami Halwa.

I always liked Badam Halwa. Being a great fan.....I tried to buy all over the city, just to make sure...'who made best Badam Halwa?'. Like right from Adyar Anadha Bavan, Archana Sweets, Krishna Sweets.......the best came from 'Ganpath Sweets' at Vadapazhani/ Vadapalani!They really made extraordinary Badam Halwa! Meantime...while all this tasting parade was going on...I also tried to fix same kind of taste from my kitchen. Well...the result turned out to be a great success!

Ingredients:

Almonds 1 bowl full
Milk 1 cup
Cardamom powder 1-2 spoons
Sugar 1 bowl full
Saffron 1/2 spoon
Ghee 1 cup.

Method:

1. Soak Almonds in warm water for 20-30 minutes. Or one can boil almonds for 5 minutes in water.

2. Allow the almonds to cool and then peel off its outer skin.

3. Make a thick paste out of it. One should add only milk while grinding it to paste.

4. Separately mix saffron to few spoons of milk and grind it. One can do this with simple mortar and pestle manually than a blender.

5. In a non-stick pan add ghee and cardamom powder. Try to maintain the whole process on low flame only.

6. Now add sugar and 1/2 cup of water....bring the syrup to pearl consistency.

7. To this syrup add badam paste and saffron. Constant stirring with well greased wooden spatula is advised. Better smear the spatula with ghee before hand.

8. Once the Halwa consistency is achieved transfer it to well greased container. Smear the container preferably with ghee.

The shelf life is more than a month. If refrigerated it stay long till 3-4 months.

Labels: Halwa, Sweets