SEMOLINA AND ALMOND HALWA

Semolina(suji)  and Almond Halwa

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup semolina (suji)
2. 1/2 cup almond dry roasted and  coarsely grond
3. 1/4 cup sliced almonds
4. 1/4 cup ghee + 2 tablespoons ghee
5. 2 + 1/4 cups milk or 2 + 1/4 cups water
6. 1/2 cup + 4 tablespoons sugar or as per taste
7. a generous pinch of saffron
8. 6 small green cardamoms, the seeds ground into a smooth powder

  Preparation:

• In a pan, add the milk and saffron and bring to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, take off the heat and set aside. (If you are using water instead of milk, combine the saffron and sugar and boil/simmer the water for about 7-10 minutes. set aside.)

• In a large thick bottomed pan at medium heat  (make sure the pan is completely dry), add the semolina  and roast them at low to medium heat for about 3-4 minutes. The color of the semolina turn light golden. This initial roasting eliminates the raw smell of the semolina.

• Reduce the heat of the stove to low and add the ghee to this pan. Quickly stir everything together and add the cardamom powder. Keep stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, while pulling the semolina  of the pan and inside out. The semolina,  will gradually turn a darker shade and will become very fragrant. You will see the semolina and the pan glistening with the ghee. You have to be patient and keep stirring so the semolina does not turn too dark. This process/step might take as long 15 minutes.

• Add the thinly sliced almonds to the pan and stir them in gently making sure they do not break. now add dry roasted and coarsely grond  almonds.(make sure almonds should not be fine.
  

• Remove the pan from the heat and pour the milk/or water that you had set aside into the pan. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!! The hot semolina and the milk will bubble and spit all over the place. almost like an explosion – (well may be that is an exaggeration, but you have to take care anyway). Put the pan back on the stove and let the halwa cook, while stirring it constantly till all the liquid is just about absorbed and the mixture no more looks soupy. Add the sugar in the pan and keep stirring at low heat till all the liquid is absorbed and the semolina swells and gets cooked through, for about 5 -7 minutes or until the the mixture pulls away from the walls of the pan.

• Switch off the heat and partially cover the pan for about 10 minutes. The texture should be sticky and lumpy and the semolina should soft; yet the grains of the semolina should feel separate and grainy.
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