June 23, 2015
At our buffet we have a bountiful selection of starters, mains and desserts. Even if you’re stuffed you need to leave room for dessert. Our sweet choices offer a perfect end to a perfect meal.
At Royal Nawaab Manchester we serve halwa desserts. Also known as halva, halwa is a favourite dessert choice in Asia. In our restaurant we take pride in sharing traditional Indian food and halwa is a traditional dessert.
The name halwa originates from ḥalwá which means sweet confectionery in Arabic. There are different preparatory methods throughout Asia but the main two types of halwa are prepared by nuts or flour.
A flour based halwa is smooth and tends to have a semolina texture whilst a nut based halwa is quite crumbly, like the crumbly layer of a home baked apple crumble.
In our Manchester restaurant we have Gajar Halwa and Sooja Halwa. Gajar is made from carrot and is bright orange in colour whilst Sooja has a flour base with a creamy colour.
What’s great about halwa is the unlimited opportunities for flavour. You can mix fruits or vegetables or other sweet flavours. Most popular halwa desserts are Gajar and Sooja for sure but you can also have other flavoured halwa.
Apple, pineapple, beetroot, pistachios, nuts, beans, squashes and pumpkin, the list is endless. Halwa lets you be creative.
We share a basic recipe for Carrot Halwa aka Gajar Halwa. Get your ingredients and lets start baking!
Ingredients
4 medium carrots
500 ml milk
250ml sugar
2 Tablespoons of Ghee (grinded)
125ml nuts and raisins
Method
1. Grate all the carrots.
2. Turn a small frying pan onto medium heat. When the pan is warm, add the ghee and wait until it’s warm before adding the nuts and raisins into the pan. Fry the ingredients, stir them occasionally to avoid burning.
3. Warm a small pan and heat the milk. Then add the carrot gratings and make sure to stir every so often to avoid any carrot pieces to stick to the bottom of the pan.
4. It will take 15-20 minutes for the carrots to absorb the milk. When the milk is fully absorbed, add the sugar and keep on stirring.
5. After five minutes or more your mixture will be quite thick and oily. This is a good sign as that means it’s time to add the fried nuts and raisins, and the ghee.
6. Turn off the heat and put your halwa into a tray to cool.
We recommend if you want to add an extra flavour to the Carrot Halwa, add a teaspoon of cardamom powder during step 5.
Come to Royal Nawaab Manchester and take your pick of our traditional dessert choices.
