Ashoka Halwa

A Thanjavur halwa in which moong dal stands in for the wheat that was scarce.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee).

Ingredients

• 250 g moong dal, split and skinned
• 300 g granulated sugar
• 200 g ghee
• 3 tablespoons wheat flour
• 500 ml water
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 60 g cashews
• 1/4 teaspoon orange food colouring, optional

Method

1. MOONG DAL STANDS IN FOR THE WHEAT THAT WAS SCARCE, and the article says that is why the sweet exists. Its inventor P. Ramaiyer MADE THE HALWA AROUND WORLD WAR II WHEN WHEAT HAD BECOME SCARCE, and SINCE THERE WAS A SHORTAGE OF WHEAT HE TURNED TO MOONG DAL. A wartime substitution that outlived the shortage, and the dal is now the dish: its other name is pasi paruppu halwa, which is moong dal halwa.
2. THE WHEAT DID NOT LEAVE ENTIRELY, WHICH IS THE ODD DETAIL. Its ingredient list is MOONG DAL, GHEE, SUGAR AND WHEAT FLOUR AS THE BASIC DISH, with khoya, cardamom and cashews SOMETIMES ADDED. Three tablespoons of flour in a quarter kilo of dal is a thickener, not a base.
3. ROAST THE DAL DRY FIRST, THEN BOIL IT SOFT. Five minutes in a dry pan until it smells nutty, then the water, then a lid, until it collapses -- about twenty minutes. Blend it smooth while it is hot.
4. THE SUGAR GOES IN AND THE WHOLE THING LOOSENS. It will go alarmingly thin. That is correct, and the next step is where it comes back.
5. THE GHEE GOES IN A LITTLE AT A TIME, OVER TWENTY MINUTES. Two hundred grams, a spoonful whenever the last one has been taken up. This is the whole labour of a halwa and it cannot be hurried: added in one go the fat sits on top and never emulsifies.
6. WHISK THE WHEAT FLOUR INTO A LITTLE WATER BEFORE IT GOES IN, OR IT WILL LUMP. In at about the halfway point.
7. IT IS DONE WHEN IT PULLS AWAY CLEAN AND GHEE SITS AT THE EDGES. Its article's words for the result are THICK GOOEY and KNOWN FOR IT THICK TEXTURE AND RICH RED, YELLOW AND ORANGE COLOUR. Cashews fried in a little ghee and stirred through at the end; cardamom off the heat.
8. SERVED WARM, WITH MORE GHEE THAN SEEMS REASONABLE. The article has it SERVED WARM WITH GENEROUS AMOUNTS OF GHEE and topped with cashews or almonds, on a fresh banana leaf at Tamil weddings, and notes that some eat it with a spicy mixture or with filter coffee.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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