Blogging Marathon # 14

Almond Halwa is an Indian delicacy - It's a dessert made up of almonds, ground to coarse texture and slowly cooked in clarified butter with a touch of saffron for color and garnished with almonds and pistachio. The aromatic fragrance of almond  is just heavenly and will pull you towards it and when you take the first bite. Your eyes start to close on its own and you experience the richness of this dessert, the ghee dissolves in your mouth and the heart goes uummm uummmmm. The feeling is just so good. Almonds are one of the most nutritious of all nuts but this recipe is definitely not for the weight watchers but they would definitely want to enjoy this on their cheat day.

Ingredients

• 2 cup Blanched Almonds
• 2 cup milk or as required for grinding the almonds.
• 1.5 cup ghee(clarified butter)
• 2 cup sugar or more as per preference of sweetness
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
• 2 - 4 pinch saffron

Method

1. Grind the almonds into a paste using milk as required.
2. Warm 1 cup ghee in a non stick pan or heavy bottomed vessel.
3. Add the almond paste in the ghee. mix well.
4. Add sugar. Once it starts to melt the paste will get thinner and starts boiling.
5. Let the almond paste cook in it till it gets thick again.
6. Add 1/2 cup ghee and cook till the paste get thicker and starts leaving the sides of the pan.
7. In a 1 tablespoon warm milk dissolve saffron. Add saffron to the almond paste.
8. Mix well. Garnish it with slivered almonds and serve hot.

 

 

Note 

• Cook the almond paste on low-medium heat.
• Even though you are continuously stirring the almond paste, ensure to keep the gas on medium.
• Even the slightest sticking or scorching of paste to the bottom of the pan will ruin your effort and give the after taste of burnt milk taste so keep an eye out.
• Listen to some nice music and keep stirring the almond paste in rhythm to beats of the music. The whole process of stirring takes at least 25-30 minutes but the end result is well worth the effort.  

How to blanch the almonds ? 

• Soak the almonds for atleast 4-5 hours' or soak it overnight. Peel off the skin of the almonds. Just press the bottom part of almond with thumb and forefinger and the peel will slip out from almond.
                                                      or
  Place almonds in bowl of water. microwave it for 1 minute and slip the skins off.

Do Check out what my fellow Blogging Marathoners are doing here: