We have a small temple in Reno, where I live currently. Every Sunday the temple is open till noon and we have pooja and bhajans followed by arathi. Devotees bring nivedyam ( food offering to God) prepared from home. We went to temple today and I prepared this halwa as nivedyam. It is a very quick recipe, you just need time for the halwa to set.
Corn flour halwa
Adapted from RaksKitchen
Ingredients
Corn flour - 1/2 cup ( I used Corn Starch 1/4 cup + All purpose flour 1/4 cup )
Sugar - 1 and 1/2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Food color - half a pinch
Cashews - 10 nos
Ghee - 1 Tbsp
Method
- Mix all purpose flour, corn starch, food color, sugar and water in a large microwave safe bowl without any lumps. Using a whisk would make this process easier.
- Microwave in high for 4 minutes. It would still be in liquid consistency. Stir well with a spoon.
- Microwave again for 2 minutes. Now the mixture would have thickened and would resemble yogurt. Mix well.
- Microwave again for 10 minutes*, stirring in between at every 2 minutes interval. Mixing well every two minutes is necessary as it ensures even cooking.
- Fry the chopped cashews in ghee till golden brown and mix them well into the above mixture. Mix the cardamom powder in.
- Use the remaining ghee from the above step to grease a shallow dish.
- Pour the mixture into this dish and let it cool for an hour or so.
- Cut into pieces as desired and serve.
*Cooking time will vary depending on the microwave. I found that doing the step 4 for 10 minutes set the halwa perfectly.
The halwa is soft but not at all oily. I got very good reviews from every one and there were requests for the recipe too. I couldn't take any pictures while I prepared this for nivedyam. I made another batch after coming back from temple for posting the recipe and to take along for the dinner party we are having tonight at a friend's place. This time I cooked it for 10 minutes in step 4 while I had only done for 6 minutes first time I made it. Cooking to 10 minutes helped in solidifying halwa correctly, so it looked beautiful when sliced to square pieces. This can be a life savior if you want to make a quick Indian sweet. No one will know that you made it in less than 20 minutes , unless of course you tell them this recipe.
