Tirunelveli Halwa or Wheat Halwa

Tirunelveli Halwa or Wheat Halwa (from Scratch) is a traditional Sweet Recipe from part of South India Called Tirunelveli. I am not big sweet addict but once I start cooking on my own, I thought of making tirunelveli halwa Some time. As it requires much patience and time to make delicious and mouth-watering halwa, I keep on Postponing to prepare this recipe. As in complete lock down mode now, I thought of giving some time to this process and tried out. Eventually, it came out really well.In this recipe, I used whole wheat flour for making Halwa. Traditionally, the halwa is prepared with Whole wheat berries or even Samba Rava. All recipes follow same process except the variation in the extraction of milk. Sharing the recipe i tried at home

Ingredients to make Tirunelveli Halwa or Wheat Halwa:

Preparation Time: 10 mins | Wait Time: 3 hours | Cook Time: 1 hour 15 mins

Whole Wheat Flour – 1 cup (250grams)
Sugar – 1.5 cups (375grams) – I took NaatuChakkarai for the process (unrefined)
ghee – 3/4 cup
Water as required (1/2 cup -125ml + 5 cups -1250ml)
cardamom powder
few mixed nuts- cashews, almonds, pistachio

Method:

Step 1 – Extracting Milk from Whole Wheat Flour:

in a wide bowl, mix whole wheat flour (1 cup) and water (1/2 cup)
knead it well to form chapathi dough
fill the bowl with water (5 cups)
cover it or Wrap it
let it soak for 3 hours

After 3 hours, squeeze the dough in water to produce milk (Wheat milk)
Repeat until the dough completely get dissolved in water

filter the milk we extracted to remove any lumps
Now, we have whole wheat milk, ghee, nuts are ready for preparing the TIRUNELVELI HALWA!!!

step 2- making Tirunelveli/wheat halwa:

Take a heavy bottomed pan, add sugar
Add whole wheat milk-1 cup ( we extracted) and let it dissolve completely
filter it remove any impurities
In The Same Pan, Add The Filtered Sugar Water And Cook For 5 Minutes To Get A Small One-Sting Consistency
make sure without burning at the bottom

Once we get a one sting consistency, start adding the remaining whole wheat milk (we extracted)
mix it well without forming any lumps
in approximately 15 minutes, it forms a porridge consistency
add 1/4 cup of ghee in the pan and mix it – 1st time Ghee

Stir Occasionally for every 5 minutes and avoid burning at the bottom

Ghee is completely absorbed in 10 minutes, start adding another tbsp of ghee – 2nd Time Ghee
mix it well

Repeat adding a tbsp of ghee every time ghee is absorbed. I did almost 7 times till I get Halwa consistency

Ghee Is Completely Absorbed In 10 Minutes, Start Adding Another Tbsp Of Ghee – 3rd Time Ghee
Mix It Well

Halwa thickens more

Ghee Is Completely Absorbed In 10 Minutes, Start Adding Another Tbsp Of Ghee – 4th Time Ghee
Mix It Well

Ghee Is Completely Absorbed In 10 Minutes, Start Adding Another Tbsp Of Ghee – 5th Time Ghee
Mix It Well

Halwa is almost getting ready as the mixture further thickens

Ghee Is Completely Absorbed In 10 Minutes, Start Adding Another Tbsp Of Ghee – 6th Time Ghee
Add a tsp of cardamom powder along with adding crushed cashew nuts
mix everything together well
Ghee Is Completely Absorbed In 5 Minutes, Start Adding Another Tbsp Of Ghee – 7th Time Ghee
Mix It Well
In another 2-3 minutes, turn off once we halwa does not stick to the pan
Halwa can served immediately. TO MAKE SQUARE PIECES, FOLLOW THE BELOW PROCEDURE

Transferring the halwa to a plate: