Being a native of Tirunelveli I
always proudly says that I am from Tirunelveli Dist. Tirunelveli one of the
most charming places in Tamil Nadu and It is also home for natural wonders in
its surroundings that attracts tourists from different parts of the world. Tirunelveli is also known as
the Halwa town. Tirunelveli is popular state-wide for its famous halwa which is
a sweet dish made primarily from wheat and sugar.
Tirunelveli halwa is have its own rich taste,blended with the
renowned sweetness of the Thamarabarani river.The copper content in this water
embraced and giving heavenly taste to the sweet dish.This Halwa is a golden
brown, semi-solid in texture and contains a lot of ghee/vanaspati which gives
it the oily look.In our village this wheat halwa / Tirunelvel halwa is a
prominent one for any functions/festivals. In our village for any function
we prepare this halwa. I have made this halwa several times. It stays fresh for
more than 10 days. I do not add any artificial colors. I caramelize sugar it
will give brown color to halwa)Today I made this halwa for my daughter’s
Birthday.:)
Ingredients:
Wheat Grains(Samba Gothumai): 1cup
Sugar: 4 cup
Ghee: 3 cup
Cashew nuts-50gms
Method:
Soak the wheat is sufficient amount of water for 8 hrs
Grind the wheat with some water and extract the wheat
milk.To get the milk, grind the wheat in mixie/blender for 5 minutes and filter
out the milk. Grind the wheat with fresh water again and filter. Repeat this at
least 3 times.
The extracted milk needs to be undisturbed for min 10 hours or overnight.In the morning, you will find that the thick milk has
settled at the bottom and then remove the top layer of water and retain only the thick milk.In this milk add 4 to 5 cups of water and mix well.
Take a pan add one cup of sugar and melt it
to get caramel color( it will give brown color to halwa)
Then In a heavy bottom pan add water and sugar, cook on
medium flame and prepare 1 thread consistency sugar syrup.
Once sugar syrup is ready reduce flame to slow and add
extracted milk slowly and keep stirring.
Once it reaches semi solid stage, add ghee little by little
and keep on stirring.After another 1 hour or so, the ghee will start oozing
out.The halwa will look transparent as well.When you take the mixture in the
laddle, it should slide and not stick to the ladle.
Add cashew and stir for another 10 mins. Mix well add more
ghee if you need.
When the ghee oozes out in the corner the halwa is done
so keep stirring until it will be glossy, forms a mass.
Switch off the flame
and you can either serve it hot directly or place it on a greased plate and cut
into any shape.
