Kesari Bat

Saffron is in the name and it is what colours it.

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

Ingredients

250 g semolina
a generous pinch of saffron
3 tablespoons warm milk, for the saffron
250 g sugar
150 g ghee
500 ml water
200 ml milk
4 cardamom pods, seeds ground
40 g cashew nuts
30 g raisins

Method

SAFFRON IS IN THE NAME AND IT IS WHAT COLOURS IT. Its article says so directly: the word KESARI in multiple Indian languages refers to the spice SAFFRON, WHICH CREATES THE DISH'S saffron-orange-yellow-coloured tinge. That is the whole separation from the semolina halwa on these pages, which its own article admits is made from similar ingredients -- ghee, sugar, semolina and water -- with saffron only SOMETIMES added. Here it is not sometimes. Leave it out and the dish has lost the thing it is named for.
THE SAFFRON IS BLOOMED IN WARM MILK AND GOES IN WITH THE LIQUID. Three spoonfuls, ten minutes. Dropped in dry it stays as threads and colours a few grains.
IT IS MORE SWEETLY MADE THAN THE PLAIN SEMOLINA HALWA. Two hundred and fifty grams of sugar to two hundred and fifty of semolina -- weight for weight.
THE SEMOLINA IS STILL TOASTED FIRST. Same technique, ten minutes in ghee. Everything in this family begins here.
ITS ARTICLE NAMES FIVE THINGS THAT CHANGE IT. Pineapple, banana, mango, coconut or rice, depending on what is to hand. Pineapple is the common one and it goes in with the liquid.
THE CASHEWS AND RAISINS ARE FRIED IN THE GHEE AND LIFTED OUT FIRST. Before the semolina goes in, so the pan is already flavoured.
IT IS SERVED HOT, WHICH ITS ARTICLE IS EMPHATIC ABOUT. Ideally and most commonly served hot.
IT IS A BREAKFAST DISH AS WELL, AND ITS ARTICLE NAMES THE PAIRING. Served with upma, rava khichdi or khara bath, and a plate of both at once is called chow chow bath.
ITS HISTORY GOES BACK FURTHER THAN THE HALWA IT RESEMBLES. Its article records the dish listed as shali-anna in the Manasollasa, a twelfth-century work, which is also how the semolina halwa's own article dates it.

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.

Filed under India · All recipes