Oh sweet grain of Halva

Posted on February 10, 2013 Updated on April 16, 2016

 

My mother was here until last Monday, and I kid you not, she made the best halva of her mother career for us. It was one small little change in the simple foolproof recipe that she has been using all her life- she used lime instead of lemon and oh my was that a wonderful deviation.

The halva recipe follows the simple 1-2-3-4 rule, which is fool proof and depending on your unit of measure allows you to make more or less portions of halva. If you use a cup as a unit of measurement you should have enough desert for about six people.

Remember to allow some time for the halva to cool down slightly so that you can mould it into your chosen shape or individual portions.

This desert is easy, quick, cheap and everybody loves it. And the recipe is vegetarian, vegan and dairy free.

Here is how we do Halva in the Moutselou clan although admittedly I prefer to brown the halva a bit more than mom because of the toasted grain smell it releases in the house.

Ingredients

1 measure of olive oil
2 measures of coarse semolina
3 measures of sugar (you can easily reduce that to 2 or even replace with honey)

Peel of half or whole lime or lemon
1 cinnamon stick
A big handful of chopped walnuts
Some finely chopped walnuts for dusting and decoration
Some cinnamon powder for decoration

Preparation

Prepare a syrup adding the boiled water, the sugar, a cinnamon stick and lime or lemon peel to a heat proof bowl or pan.

Stir the sugar until dissolved, cover and let it sit long enough to unleash the lime and cinnamon flavours[i].

Heat the olive oil in a pan (preferably non stick) until it’s almost sizzling.

Add the semolina to the pan and brown, stirring continuously and until it reaches your preferred shade of semolina brown[ii].

Add a big handful of coarsely chopped walnuts halfway through your browning action.

Remove the lemon/lime peel, stir the syrup in the pan of browned semolina and either remove from heat or lower to minimum whilst you continue stirring.

Remove from heat and discard the cinnamon stick.

Let the halva mixture cool down for five minutes or more.

Mould either in a bundt cake tin or a loaf tin or in individual moulds of your choice, e.g. Greek coffee cups for smaller portions.

Dust with cinnamon powder and decorate with finely ground walnuts and.

Let the halva cool down before serving. The halva is delicious cold when left in the fridge overnight.

If you wish serve with grapes and decorate with single (soya) cream