Halvah

[cbarre02]

Well I just checked out a couple of other recipes for this same preparation. The idea seems to be to simmer the carrots in the spiced milk for some time (up to 3 hours), until the mixture is almost dry. Then remove to fry the carrot mixture in ghee until it has release all of its water content. My thinking is once the water is gone that the lactose would caramelize and leave you with some sort of buttery candied carrot concoction. Some recipes call for the addition of almond (though I think toasted pistachios would be more intriguing... and astatically pleasing), most call for raisins. Parsnips of course come to mind as an alternative, with the whole parsnip cake thing right now, though many other sweet vegetables could lend themselves nicely.

Here is a link to one of many recipes

I don't know the results of this recipe however, as I have yet to prepare this dish. I have found much unexplored (in terms of western pastry chefs) ideas and goods in Indian cuisine, and think that there is much possibility in this area. Today I even found that Kerala (one of India's States) produces cocoa beans, some thing I was unaware of. I also came across a pudding using ground dried peas, which sounded quiet interesting (though I have used dried legumes in cakes before, only to be left with a earthy metallic flavor).

India also offers a number of refreshing drinks that could easily be transformed to panna cottas, gellees, sorbets, foams, or many other things.

I know this is off the subject but is any one familiar with noodle koogle, and it's preparation. Soba noodles are just begging to be put into desserts some how; this may be another topic though

[Suzanne F]

Cory, you might check on the India board about this, if you haven't already. It may have been discussed there, as possibly also sheer korma (vermicelli pudding in a creamy sauce).

Also: there's a recipe for noodle kugel here in the eGCI session on Jewish Cooking Through the Year. If you do a search on +noodle +kugel you'll probably find more.

Edited March 15, 2004 by Suzanne F (log)

[rnewman]

Cory,

The description you gave of the carrot halva in your second post is correct. The key is to cook the carrots in the milk quite slowly so the sugars in the milk caramelize properly. Additional sugar is then added after the milk has reduced and the carrots are soft. The cooking down of milk to an almost fudge-like consistency is used often in Indian desserts.

Most of the times that I have seen carrot halva made or made it myself, I have added slivered almonds and ground cardamom when the carrot/milk/ghee mixture is almost done. I recently went to a South Indian restaurant and they had halva made with beets which was very pretty and the taste was wonderful as well. Prior to this I had never had any vegetable halva except for carrot so this makes me think that, as you mention, other sweet root vegetables might lend themselves well to this cooking process.

[chromedome]

I made that for a homesick Punjabi friend, last year. I found that the end result (though sweeter than I like a dessert to be) tasted disconcertingly lemony. Actually not "lemony" as such, but more "lemon verbena-y" or "lemon grass-y". How that came out of carrots, cardamoms, milk and sugar I'm not sure.

Apparently in India it's common to add red food colouring, but I didn't bother.

[scott123]

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...ndpost&p=227758

[cbarre02]

Just made a half batch of the recipe that was posted on this site. Made a few minor ajustments, with the addition of honey for some of the sugar, a bit of salt, and cinnamon for cardamom (would have prefered the cardamom, but don't have any at the house). Texture is quite dense, and will thicken as it cools about the same as a 3 to 1 ratio for ganache. Don't know how it tastes cool, but is quite goo warm. Will post on it's tast and "cutability" (is that a word?) later.

[JFLinLA]

Can you also post a photo?

[cbarre02]

So I waited for it to cool and sliced in to 1inch squares with a knife (next time I'm leaving the raisins out, to allow for easier slicing). Very tasty, tough the carrot flavor is all but gone, due to the long cooking time. Soft with a Macaroon like texture, with crunch bits of almonds. Cardamom would be quite nice here, as the sweetness is the loudest "flavor" in the bunch. The milk comes through quite nice, and it's not greasy like I thought it would be. Nice looking and cuts clean. Next time I think that I will bruniose the carrot (for a nicer look) or fine julienne, and pack in a terrine mold length ways.

I will try this again no doubt, and try it with other ingredients:

Beets (someone said that tried this, very interesting)

Fibrous squash

Cabbage

Coconut

Mango

Seems to be a fun recipe. For the picture... I’ll post it when I figure out how...ahaha

[mags]

I've liked carrot halva in the past, and I can certainly see beet or coconut or parsnip. But cabbage halva (shuddering).....ok ok I trust you.

[rnewman]

You might try grating the carrot to give a finer texture and to make it easy to mold the finished halva although this will alter the cooking time and amount of milk used somewhat.

[cbarre02]

I did grate the carrot, and it would have molded very nicely. However, i think that it would have looked nicer if the piece were all uniform. About the cabbage, it's only a thougt, but you never know til you try.

[nathanm]

There is a restaurant in Banglore, India that serves carrot halwa hot, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top - it is very good that way

[cbarre02]

Thanks for all of the input on this one. Last night i tried a new dessert in our dinning room. Used the halva for the base, Yogurt baviarian on top, Pistachio tuile, Sweet herb "salad", with a carrot reduction and cardomom sauce.

The diner's enjoyed it with many comment's of it being a lighter version of carrot cake... hahaha. We gave away 10 for free last night, just to get some in put. Oh for the halva i actually bruniosed the carrot, and it came out very nice. Once again thanks for the input.

[Popcorn]

This is just a shot in the dark...

as a child I was madly in love with the Halva I'd get from various jewish delis in baltimore. marbled, chocolate, plain(?), with nuts or without, I loved it all.

I haven't had halva in years and it occurred to me to see if anyone here makes it themselves and has a recipe worth sharing. I know I could google recipes but I have learned to trust the excellent palate's of the egullet bakers...

In addition to the recipe I'd love to hear if halva is shippable in cold weather as I'm thinking ahead to the Christmas gift making season.

Many thanks!

Ben

[Pam R]

Ooo.. how interesting. I'm of no help to you, because I would have never even thought of making it myself! I believe it's just sesame (and other nuts), egg whites and sugar.... but I don't know how they make it.

I CAN tell you though, that you should be able to ship it. We sell a lot of the stuff - and even make a Halve torte/cake which is nothing more than a couple of slabs of halvah with either an icing or ganache (very popular in the Bar Mitzvah circuit). My point is that we freeze it and it thaws just fine - so the cold weather shouldn't harm it at all.

I'm interested to see if anybody can tell you how to make it ..

[anzu]

I can oblige.

I am paraphrasing (and adding a few comments of my own) from Indian-Jewish Cooking by Mavis Hyman. I have made it, and found it extremely straightforward, and that it yielded the same texture as the bought stuff.

Toast 1 cup of sesame seeds on a dry skillet until golden brown. Allow to cool, then grind to a powder.

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil, dissolve one quarter of a cup of sugar in the water. Keep aside on low heat.

Heat 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil, add powdered sesame seeds, and toast over low heat, stirring constantly for 5 to 10 minutes. This is a fairly vague description, but when ready it truly will start to give off a pleasant aroma that wasn't there before. It will also have turned somewhat darker. Turn off the heat under both the sesame seeds and the water.

Now add the sweetened water to the sesame seeds (it will splash). If adding nuts or essence, add them at this stage. Turn onto a greased surface and allow to cool.

It is still quite runny at the point you turn it out. I line a bowl (about the size of bowl you would eat breakfast cereal from) with baking parchment or greased aluminum foil so that it is does not spread too much. It firms up as it cools.

I haven't tried it with the chocolate variation. I imagine you would have to dissolve it in the sugar syrup. The recipe says nothing about toasting the nuts you add into it, but I do that.

The plain version probably has vanilla essence added to it. I like Indian flavorings, so tend to add ground cardamom and cardamom essence as well.

Isn't it so lovely and straightforward!

BTW, there is a huge range of Indian halvas that work on the same principle: try it for example with semolina, wheat, urad dal flour, or chickpea flour. All of these are cooked in the same way as this recipe, with the exception that, as these flours are already ground, you just go straight into the step of toasting your main ingredient with oil or ghee. Some turn out firmer than others. Semolina is often prepared to be quite soft and is eaten warm with a spoon. Urad dal (one of my favorites) turns a luscious chocolatey color, and sets quite firm. I've played around a lot with these, and you can mess around considerable with the amount of sugar, water, or oil. It's very forgiving. (Too much water, for example, just keep cooking it longer until the excess gets evaporated, etc.)

Edited July 15, 2005 by anzu (log)

[Pam R]

That's amazing. I assumed it would be much more difficult. Does it give you the denseness that bought halvah does?

[anzu]

That's amazing.  I assumed it would be much more difficult.  Does it give you the denseness that bought halvah does?

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To tell the truth, it's been a few years since I made this particular one. I was living in Japan at the time, and there was no other way of getting it other than making it myself.

So, I THINK it has the same denseness as the bought one, but I might have changed it a little in my imagination.

Like I said, though, all halva of this type is very forgiving. If you wanted to try cooking it a little longer after adding the water, to ensure that the whole mass has dried out a bit more, nothing bad will happen.

I usually make my halva from urad flour, etc. in the most incredibly sloppy way. I don't measure ANYTHING, not even how much water I'm adding to how much flour. Then I cook it up a little longer if it's too runny, or throw in a little more water if it's too dry. In the very beginning, I used to measure things out for halva, but doing it more sloppily still got me the same results (even when I was expecting total failure as a result for my sloppiness!).

Needless to say, I don't bake like this.

[Popcorn]

Hey Anzu,

I may try this recipe out this weekend. My only reservation is whether the indian part of the jewish/indian cookbook will mess with my happily nostalgic memory of halva. It doesn't sound like it though.

Pam, the halva cake with ganache sounds fabulous to me. any more details on the production of said?

Thanks,

Ben

[anzu]

Hey Anzu,

I may try this recipe out this weekend.  My only reservation is whether the indian part of the jewish/indian cookbook will mess with my happily nostalgic memory of halva.  It doesn't sound like it though.

Pam, the halva cake with ganache sounds fabulous to me.  any more details on the production of said?

Thanks,

Ben

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There is no specifically Indian part with this recipe. There are several distinct Indian Jewish communities, with people who emigrated to India at different times. Some of their recipes are 'fusion', but others are not.

The halva I grew up with was Greek (lived in a place with many many Greek immigrants). Since then I've eaten so-called Turkish, Bulgarian, and Israeli sesame halva, and each was the same.

Well, to be more specific, some come packed in a plastic box rather than as a log from which one cuts off slices. The boxed ones can sometimes be a bit more oily, but that's the only difference.

Halva cake with ganache really sound like gilding the lily, doesn't it? I'd be interested too.

[cbarre02]

Have you ever tired carrot halva?

[SuzySushi]

Anzu,

Do you use hulled or unhulled sesame seeds? What do you use to grind them after they've been toasted?

[anzu]

Suzy,

I was using hulled sesame seeds. I was grinding them in a Japanese suribachi (how do I explain this!!). I guess I'd have to call it a type of mortar and pestle that has fine ribs on the inside and a wooden pestle, and which is used mostly for grinding roasted sesame in Japan, though I have seen it used for grinding other things too.

I have also made poppy seed halva, which also has to be toasted and ground in the same way as the sesame halva, and in that case I ground the poppy seeds in batches in a coffee grinder. I am sure that sesame seeds would work okay in this too. (There are a few Indian spice mixes which have toasted sesame seeds ground up with other things such as toasted coconut, etc. and I've ground them in the coffee grinder without problems).

It's a good question though, as I just realized that one could overgrind it, and make it pasty. You want a light and fluffy texture, so just whizz it lightly and not for too long. One can always do it longer again if it's not fine enough, but it can't be undone if it's turned into sesame paste!

Cbarre02,

yep. I have to admit that personally carrot halva is my least favorite halva! No particular reason, it just doesn't do much for me. I've tried all sorts of halva, including potato, pumpkin, (beets and peas - not together - are still on my to-do list), and pretty much any grain that ever gets used commonly in India. There are a lot of combinations as well, such as poppy seed with coconut, and so on.

[SuzySushi]

Suzy,

I was using hulled sesame seeds. I was grinding them in a Japanese suribachi (how do I explain this!!).

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LOL! Yes, I know exactly what a suribachi is (my screenname should be a clue!). I'd been thinking more along the lines of "food processor" and worrying that it would turn into an oily mass/mess!

About carrot halva, the best I've ever tasted was made by a Japanese friend from a recipe she'd gotten from a Japanese chef who apprenticed in fine restaurants in France. (I've long forgotten his name & wonder if he's famous now!) Once upon a time I had the recipe, but that disappeared long ago in my transition from hand-written notebooks of recipes to computer after computer. Wonder if she still has it... I'll have to email her.

[anzu]

LOL! Yes, I know exactly what a suribachi is (my screenname should be a clue!). I'd been thinking more along the lines of "food processor" and worrying that it would turn into an oily mass/mess!

About carrot halva, the best I've ever tasted was made by a Japanese friend from a recipe she'd gotten from a Japanese chef who apprenticed in fine restaurants in France. (I've long forgotten his name & wonder if he's famous now!) Once upon a time I had the recipe, but that disappeared long ago in my transition from hand-written notebooks of recipes to computer after computer. Wonder if she still has it... I'll have to email her.

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