Sweet dry-fruit halva

Method

1. Roast semolina on a pan on medium flame until golden brown and stir often - takes about 20 mins (avoid high flame or blackening of semolina).

2. On other pan add ghee/vegan butter and fry dry-fruits and nuts of your choice until golden brown.

3. Alternatively, instead of dry-fruits and nuts you can also use either finely chopped peeled apple or small pineapple chunks or tiny pieces of peeled banana (one type of fruit for one portion of cooking).

4. To this, add ¼ tsp cardamom powder, ¼ tsp nutmeg powder, ¼ tsp cinnamon powder, ¼ tsp vanilla bean paste and pinch of salt if you like.

5. Now add ½ cup roasted semolina to the pan and mix well and turn the flame on low.

6. Add your sweetener to the mixture in pan – 2 tbsp (or varied quantity as you like) of brown sugar or jaggery powder (for cooking with dry-fruits) – if you are using fresh fruits instead of dry-fruits then white sugar.

7. To this gradually add 2 cups of hot boiling water (you might like to add more water if you want slightly more liquid consistency), stir and let it cook on low flame with lid on - until it starts getting dried and detaching from the pan surface.

8. Transfer the ‘Sweet dry-fruit halva’ to the serving bowl – traditionally, best served for breakfast with puri (deep fried bread) and chana masala.