Reposting Halwa recipes for my event

Tried and tasted by Nivedita 

Hi All,

I was surprised when I checked my archived posts and got these many halwa recipes. Just giving the links with photos as these are many to repost alone. 

Carrot and Orange Halwa

Sending my Heart to My Valentine!!!

Polished wheet halwa (ಗೋಧಿ ಹುಗ್ಗಿ ) for new year!

Instant coconut halwa

Carrot burfi

This goes to my event, 

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT - CELEBRATE SWEETS~HALWA!!!!!

I wish to thank everyone who has participated in my event and those also who tried but could not for some reasons. 

I will be posting the round up in the first week of August.

Keep Smiling,

Green gram halwa

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

I am really an absent minded person. I thought last date for event is July 31st!! Suddenly I saw it now that I have set it as July 25th!!!

Here is my one more try on halwa. It is not very delicious but a very healthy as I have used Green gram flour to make it.

Green gram flour is common in my house. We prepare rotti, thali peeth, laddus and jhunka or pitla or Curry. I use it in making dosas. But I have never tries the halwa with this. So thought of giving it a try. I loved the taste. But you are not used of the smell of green gram you may not like it. I think its good for kids as its healthy one.

I tried in with a very little quantity as I was not sure about the taste.

Giving the recipe :

Green gram flour - 1/4 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Ghee - 2 tbsp+ 1 tsp

Cashew nuts - 1 tbps, chopped

Salt pinch or less

Water - 1 cup

Take the gram flour in a microwave safe dish and keep on HIGH for 30 seconds.(I tried to roast it directly in tawa on heat, it got burnt)

Keep it aside.

Heat ghee in a pan and fry the cashew nuts. keep aside.

Take water and sugar in a thick bottomed vessel and keep it to boil. When starts boiling, add the gram flour. Here, you should be quick to stir it continuously otherwise lumps will be formed and its difficult to remove the lumps later.

OR

Take little cold water, put the flour in it and mix it properly to remove lumps. Add this to boiling water.

Keep on stirring. Add cardamom powder. Add 1 tsp of ghee. Cook it for few minutes without leaving it. It will start leaving the sides. Off the heat, add fried nuts with ghee. Mix it and allow it to cool. Halwa is ready to eat.

This for my event, EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT - CELEBRATE SWEETS~HALWA!!!!!

Keep Smiling,

Ginna (First Milk Halwa)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Are you thinking that what is this First milk? This is the first milk taken from cow just after the delivery and normally it is known as Colostrum. While browsing for more information, I got this link, where it says, this colostrum helps the human immune system tackleviruses, including HIV and H1N1.

During my childhood, milkman used to supply the milk. There were no packet milk. Milkmen used to bring the milk in big aluminium cans or in bottles.  And when ever there was any cow to deliver, we used to wait for this first milk.  Mom used to prepare this Ginna from that milk. 

But when I came to know that how much important it is for a calf to have the colostrum, I (at least) stopped having ginna.  I felt bad for the calf! 

Even for human babies, mother's first milk is very important to develop the immune system.

But, it is not advisable for a pregnant woman as this is considered as heat food or which produces heat in the body.

Last week, my mother's friend bought this ginna for us! And I could not wait taking pictures. I think I tasted it after 25 years!

Here is the  recipe from my mom,

Colostrum - 1 litre

Powdered or grated Jaggery - 250 gm  or according to your taste

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

 The milk should be used as soon as possible otherwise you will not get the halwa texture, it will become water like payasam.

Add the milk and jaggery in a cooker vessel.  Mix it till the jaggery is dissolved.  Add cardamom powder.
Check for the sweetness. If less add more.
Keep it in a cooker and give 2 whistles. Allow it to cool.

Remove the vessel. Cut the cooked halwa into desired shapes. 

If the milk is one day old,  repeat the same thing but cook it outside in a vessel by stirring it often.  You will get watery ginna, but that also tastes good. We used to have it with puri or chapati.

Sending this to my event : 

"EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT - CELEBRATE SWEETS~HALWA!!!!"

Keep Smiling,

Banana Peel Halwa

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Today I am hitting(not killing) 2 birds with one stone!!! Here is the recipe for two events!

Banana is a favorite fruit of everyone, including God! Banana is the first fruit we offer to God in any Puja. Banana is a rich source of potassium and fibres. I am Not going into the details, as I am using only the peel here. But even the peel is as good as the whole banana.

We get different variety of bananas.I usually use the small or Elaichi bananas. Here in this recipe also, I have used eliachi banana peel. You can use any variety available to you.

Here goes the recipe to make a small cup of halwa. You can increase the quantity to make it more. Only to take care is the quantity of sugar and to be very quick in making or else the peels will turn into black and halwa also turns brown.

Banana peel - 4 to 6, depends on the size of banana 

Sugar - 3 tbsp or less 

(depending on the sweetness of banana and your taste)

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Cashew nuts - 4 to 6

Cardamom - 1/8th tsp

Milk powder - 1/2 tsp(optional), 

I was not sure about the taste of the boiled peel, so thought of adding little of milk powder.  I think it tastes fine without milk powder also. Let me try next time. And I will let you know about the taste. 

Wash and clean the bananas properly. Peel the banana, peel the skins. Clean the ends and keep in water for few minutes. Remove it and clean once again with clean cloth to remove any dirt if in case.

Put the peel in a bowl. Add water just to cover the peel and boil for 5 minutes or till the skin becomes tender. Remove and keep to cool.

Puree it.

Heat 1 tbsp ghee and fry the cashew nuts. Keep aside.

Add Sugar and keep it to boil. Keep on stirring. Once the sugar melts, add the puree,milk powder, cardamom powder and ghee. 

Once it starts leaving the sides, add one more tbsp of ghee. Remove it from fire. 

Keep it to cool.

Banana peel halwa is ready to eat. It really tastes good and I think it is good for toddlers!! Am I right???

Sending this to,

 1.the event hosted by Nithu at Nithu's Kitchen on 

Best out of Waste

 and

2. My event  "EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT - CELEBRATE SWEETS~HALWA!!!!"

Keep Smiling,

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT - CELEBRATE SWEETS~HALWA!!!!!

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

"If you fail in something in the Life, that is the time to learn from your mistake!!" I have read these lines in many books. Often  I follow it too. Again I am going to follow it and going to check my ability or capacity in managing the event. 

Last one was a flop! I do not know the reason or may be the theme was complicated or more people were not aware about it!! And it was non-cooking event. But I am thankful to many of blogger friends who were so supportive to make me feel good. A chat between me and Srivalli at that moment gave me little relief. 

This time I am planning to hold an event on cooking. And the theme is Halwa!! Yesterday, when I saw 5 halwa posts in my blogger friends at a time in 24 hours of span, this idea came into my mind. I was scared of the failure again and just put it in my FB status. And then I got the message from Jagruti જાગૃતિ  of Joy of Cooking. She encouraged me to go ahead with the event announcement. Thanks Jagruti for so much support and encouragement.

So here comes the theme of the event :

Come, Lets

 "CELEBRATE SWEETS~HALWA" 

                                                        : image link

Halwa is a common desert and is usually prepared at home.  It is the quickest and easiest desert to make. The best part of Halwa is you can make Halwa with anything!! (I remember the last dialog in the movie "CAT IN THE HAT" where the mother asks the kids "with what you made the cookies" and the girl will answer " you can make cookies out of anything mom"!!!)

You can make halwa out of most of the vegetables. You can make halwa with powdered pulses, grains, fruits, dry fruits, nuts and......, I will leave the imagination and creativity with you all!!

Here you can read more about Halwa.

I am inviting all of you to prepare Halwa.  

Go through the rules :

• Post the recipe in your blog from Today till July 25, 2010.
• Send it to my email id nivedita.mt@gmail.com with "CELEBRATE SWEETS~HALWA"  as a subject.
• You can send as many entries as you wish.
• For archived posts, 

         If the recipe is posted within two months, just update the post and link back to my event.

         If the recipe  is posted earlier, please update, repost and link bank it to my event.

• Placing the logo will be highly appreciated as it will be easy to spread the news about this event.
• Non bloggers can send their entries to my email. 

This time, I expect all of you to participate in this sweet event.  This is a self test trial for me!!

I hope you all will not allow me to fail.

Waiting for more entries.

(Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm - Sir Winston Churchill)

And one more announcement :

If this event goes well, I want to continue the series with other sweets. Thats why I have named the event as "Celebrate sweets ~        "

Keep Smiling,

Carrot and Orange Halwa

Tried and tasted by Nivedita 

Hi All,

I think today we can celebrate "Halwa Day"!!! There are 5 recipes in FB from my blogger friends in one day!!! Here is mine too!!

Actually, I was thinking to do something different with carrot as I wanted to participate in PJ's on going event. Even though I have few recipes in my draft, they are usual ones and are spicy foods.I thought of making some sweet with Carrot and could not think anything else other than this Halwa. But Carrot halwa is a very common sweet. There are many methods to make a simple carrot halwa. And I thought of giving it a twist by adding Orange to it. 

First, I was not sure how it will come out!!! As I never cooked orange directly on heat! I started with little hesitation.

I thought of the ingredients : the normal things which we use for other halwas.

And here it is :

Carrot - 1 big

Washed, peeled, cubed and put into a blender to take the juice. Seive the juice and keep the pulp aside.My juicer is under repair, so these many steps I followed. You can make the juice using juicer.

Carrot pulp - which remained after the juice is sieved.

Orange - 1 big, Take out the juice.

Now measure the juices.

I got half cup juice from both.

Sugar - 1/4 cup or little more if Orange is sour. 

Ghee - 1 tsp

Crushed Almonds and cashew nuts - 1 tbsp

Cornflour - 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp as per the texture of halwa

Salt a pinch

Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp

ACTUALLY I WANTED TO USE ONLY JUICE AND MORE CORNFLOUR. BUT THEN I THOUGHT WHY TO WASTE THE CARROT PULP OR EXTRACT. May be next time I will try only with juice and cornflour and check.

Now, Mix both the juices and pour in a thick bottomed kadai on a heat. When it starts boiling add sugar and carrot extract. Stir and allow it to boil till it thickens. It may take 15 minutes. Now add cornflour and salt. Add cinnamon powder and Crushed dry fruits. Cook till it starts leaving its sides. Transfer it in to a greased plate and allow it set. 

                               

Carrot and Orange Halwa it ready to eat! Have it hot or chilled!!

Sending this to PJ's ongoing event "Vegetable Marathon"

                                                  

Sending it to 

Food palette series event giveaway

                                                     

Keep Smiling,