Food & Dining: Festive halwas to light up any holiday table
We are thrilled to introduce our new monthly column! It will feature, on a rotational basis, all of the following and more:
• Restaurant reviews
• The “Best in Town” series: best fine dining, best lunch buffet, best dosa, best chaat, best mithai, etc.
• Seasonal food topics
• Recipes
• From our family to yours: cherished family recipes and traditions
• Shopping Indian foods in the marketplace: seasonal tips, good finds and more
• Wine and spirits for the Indian palate
The end of the year is a culinary celebration. With so many holidays at the forefront, what’s a better way to celebrate than to make homemade halwa?
Halwa is the perfect sweet and luxurious way to round out a festive meal. And I’m sure, there are some halwas in our lineup you’ve never heard of before!
Poppy Seed Halwa
By Suneeta Mishra
Cookbook Author, Cooking Up a Storm
Before you go scratching your head—there is such a thing! Poppy seed (khus khus) halwa is a Maharashtrian treat while fasting. The rich poppy seeds cooked in ghee make this unusual halwa one to savor again and again.
(Photo: Henna Bakshi)
INGREDIENTS
- ½ cup poppy seeds (khus khus)
- 4 tbsp ghee
- 4 tbsp sugar
- ¾ cup milk
- 4 tbsp dry fruits, finely chopped
METHOD
- Soak the poppy seeds (khus khus) overnight, and grind to a paste with 2 to 3 tablespoons of water. It should turn out to be a semi-solid paste, approximately about a cup.
- Next heat the ghee. Cook the poppy seeds paste in the ghee until done. Then add the milk and sugar and cook for a while. It would all need to come together. It should start to resemble
semolina (sooji) halwa.
- Garnish with chopped dry fruits and serve hot.
Holiday Pumpkin Halwa
(Photo: Sucheta Rawal)
By Sucheta Rawal
Author, Beato Goes To Series
What screams holiday season more than pumpkins?! This simple halwa combines seasonal ingredients with the richness of ghee and elegance of saffron. Heads up: your guests may want seconds!
INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/2 lbs whole pumpkin
- 5 cups whole milk
- 8-10 cardamom pods (or 1 tsp cardamom powder)
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp ghee (or unsalted butter)
- 2 tbsp almonds, blanched and chopped
- 2 tbsp dried green or black raisins
- ¼ tsp saffron strands
- ½ tsp salt
METHOD
- In a large deep pot, bring the milk to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the whole pumpkin in half. Scrape out the seeds and strings with a spoon, and discard. Peel the pumpkin skin and reserve the flesh in a separate bowl. Grate the flesh in a food processor.
- Add shredded pumpkin and cardamom seeds (removed from green pods) to the milk and simmer for approximately 2 hours, stirring occasionally to incorporate the foaming cream. Do not let the milk stick to the bottom of the pan or it will burn.
- Once the milk is completely absorbed and the pumpkin has a purée texture, add the brown sugar. Continue to stir until the sugar dissolves (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a wok, on medium-high heat, warm the ghee. Once the ghee is piping hot, fry the cinnamon stick and almonds for 1 minute. Then add the pumpkin mixture, raisins and saffron, and fry for another 5-10 minutes until it starts to lightly brown and thicken. Remove from heat and serve warm.
- Store remaining halwa in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze in an airtight container. Reheat to serve.
Pecan and Apricot Halwa
With a Parle-G cookie base and rabri whipped cream
By Neelma Patel
Recipe Developer, Foodie with Neelma
Wanna go the extra mile and really wow your guests? This pecan halwa is seasonal, modern and your childhood all rolled into one. The layers of textures and flavors make this halwa a decadent treat!
(Photo: Henna Bakshi)
INGREDIENTS:
For the base: Parle-G cookie base
- 16 Parle-G cookies, crushed
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
Mix melted butter, cookie crumbs and cardamom until well incorporated, set aside.
For the middle layer: Pecan and apricot halwa filling
- 1 cup pecans, finely chopped
- ¼ cup dried apricots, chopped
- 2 tablespoons ghee
- ¼ cup water
- 1 cup khoya or mawa (shredded paneer can be substituted but increase cooking time by 5-7 minutes or until moisture evaporates)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
METHOD
- Heat the ghee on medium to low flame in a heavy-bottomed pan, add the apricots and roast for 2-3 minutes until softened.
- Add the pecans and roast until you get a toasty aroma and a little bit of color. This should take about 4-5 minutes more. Constantly turn to prevent burning.
- Once roasted, add the water and the mawa to the mixture. Keep stirring continuously at this stage until all the moisture has been absorbed and the halwa leaves the sides of the pan. This also means that most of the water added has evaporated.
- Add the sugar and continue cooking until dissolved.
- Turn off heat and add saffron strands and cardamom. Mix well and set aside.
- The final halwa consistency shouldn’t be dry. The consistency we are looking for is like a thick porridge. If your halwa gets too thick after it cools, you can use a little bit of hot water to loosen it up right before assembling your pots.
For the top layer: Rabri whipped cream
- 1 cup whipping cream, cold (leave in the refrigerator until you are ready to use)
- ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
- 10-12 saffron threads
- ½ teaspoon of cardamom powder
- 2 tablespoons milk, cold
- Before you start, put your wire whisk attachment and steel bowl of the stand mixer (or hand blender and any bowl you are going to use) in the refrigerator for around 20 minutes until chilled.
- In a small bowl, crush the saffron strands using your palms and add to the hot milk. Let it sit for around 10 minutes for the flavor and color to develop.
- Next, add the cream to the steel bowl of your stand mixer and using the wire whisk attachment, beat the cream (I use it chilled straight from the refrigerator) until it forms peaks. Remember to not overbeat, otherwise, it will separate and may become butter.
- Add the sweetened condensed milk to the whipped cream and whisk for another minute on medium until well incorporated.
- Slowly, from the side of the mixer, add the saffron milk and cardamom.
- Keep whisking only until completely blended together. At this stage, your whipped cream should still be loose and not stiff like cake frosting.
- Set aside.
For the garnish:
- 2 tablespoons of the Parle-G cookie crumbs mixed with 2 tablespoons of chopped pecans. Mix and set aside for final garnish.
To assemble:
- Add 2 tablespoons of the base to each cup, making sure to divide the entire base equally between all twelve cups. Using a spoon or tool to press down the crumbs firmly at the bottom.
- Next, spoon all the halwa equally between the twelve cups.
- Top with a spoonful of rabri cream. You can also use a pastry bag to do this part if you want.
- Crumb each cup with a sprinkling of the chopped pecan and cookie dust on top.
- Enjoy.
Walnut Halwa
By Diksha Mittal
Food Writer
Walnuts soaked and ground will make for a delicious coarse base for this halwa. The nutty dessert is perfect to finish a wintery holiday meal.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup rock sugar powder
- 1 tbsp cucumber seeds
- 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
- A pinch of saffron
- 1 tsp dates, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup milk
METHOD
- Soak walnuts in hot water for 15 minutes or in normal water for 2–3 hours.
- Drain the water. Remove the walnuts and wipe them with a cloth. Coarsely grind these walnuts with cucumber seeds.
- In a pan, roast the ground walnuts for 5 minutes (without ghee). Add milk, rock sugar powder, cardamom powder and saffron, and cook for 10 minutes on medium flame. Keep stirring continuously.
- Remove from flame and add dates.
- Garnish it with pumpkin seeds and dates. Serve hot.
Sweet Potato Halwa
By Henna Bakshi
Food and Wine Columnist, Khabar
Sweet potatoes have plenty of natural sugar, so you don’t have to add a lot of sugar to this treat. You can also make the same halwa using regular potatoes too! This halwa is a lot like a sweet potato pecan casserole or pie filling, simply with delicious desi flavors.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 1/2 cup grated sweet potato
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 8-10 strands of saffron
- 2 tbsp lukewarm milk
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon powdered green cardamom
- 3 tablespoon ghee
- ½ cup mixed dried nuts
- water as needed
METHOD
- Boil, peel and mash sweet potatoes in a bowl.
- Add saffron strands to lukewarm milk and keep aside.
- Add ghee to a non-stick pan on medium heat. Once melted, add sweet potatoes and cook until light brown.
- Add milk to the pan along with cardamom powder, sugar and water. Stir to mix well and cook for about 7-8 minutes. Stir continuously.
- Add saffron milk to the pan and stir well until absorbed.
- In a smaller pan, toast dried nuts lightly on medium heat.
- arnish the sweet potato halwa with freshly toasted nuts and serve warm.
Meet the columnist
HENNA BAKSHI, formerly the host of “Around the World in $40,” a cooking show on CNN’s Headline News, is a seasoned food journalist and a certified wine expert. Currently, a Producer at HLN - CNN, Bakshi resides in Atlanta with her husband, Andy Leverett. The couple met in college, producing a cooking show together.
Born and raised in New Delhi, India, Bakshi moved to the States at the young age of fifteen. She fondly remembers the ginger-scented kitchens, the hot summer nights, and the colorful streets with vegetable vendors from her childhood in India.
She is also an avid cook—Gordon Ramsay, Padma Lakshmi and Ranveer Brar are her kitchen spirit animals.
Interested in contributing? Guest contributors to the column are welcome. Please email your queries to hennabakshi19@ gmail.com with “Food & Dining Column” in the subject line.
Enjoyed reading Khabar magazine? Subscribe to Khabar and get a full digital copy of this Indian-American community magazine.
