Karachi Halwa / Cornflour Halwa

Happy Janmashtami to everyone. Here is a sweet dish to celebrate the birthday of Lord Krishna. I know this not a traditional dish cooked on this occasion, I was planning to cook something related to the festival but a fever has held me from kitchen.
But I dont want to leave my space vacant on such a day, so posting a recipe from my draft.
In Kerala we dont celebrate Janmashtami as they do in other states. May be the only specialties cooked here would be Paal payasam or Nei payasam to offer as prasadam. I am not sure how many do even that. Well I haven't seen anyone celebrating the occasion in my family. the only thing I remember is going to the city to watch a procession were people dress as Krishna and showcase various incidents of his childhood.  Being a devotee of Krishna, it was during my college days tat I wanted to do something to celebrate the occasion and my mother suggested decorating the pooja room with flowers and offering Paal payasam. I have seen other bloggers preparing a lot of traditional dishes from their place, I had bookmarked some and was waiting to celebrate in a whole new way, but bad-luck.

Now a days we usually cut short celebrations due to lack of time, but I like to do these the way our grandparents used to do. Its the effort that they took which gives us beautiful memories of these festivals to cherish for a whole lifetime. These are the things that link us to our culture and tradition. So now its our turn to pass on these to coming generations and give our children some beautiful memories.

About this dish, it has impressed me the moment I saw it on the blog Raks kitchen, hers was microwave version. I tried it on stove top and was utter failure coz i think the measurement of ingredients is different for both. So I searched for stove top method and I was surprised to see that it was soo popular that almost all the Indian blogs I read had the recipe. Its really easy to prepare and tasty too. The halwa has a jelly like consistency.


Ingredients

• Cornflour  -  1/2 cup
• Sugar  -  1 and 1/2 cup
• Water  -  1 cup + 1 and 1/2 cup
• Ghee  -  2 tbsp
• Lemon juice  -  1 tsp
• Pista  flavor  -  1 to 2 tsp

Method

• Grease and keep a plate or vessel ready.
• Dissolve cornflour in 1 and 1/2 cups of water. Make sure the batter is lump free.
• In a heavy bottom pan heat sugar and 1 cup water. Cook till the sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice and simmer for few more minutes till the syrup just start to thicken. No need to wait for string formation.
• Add in the cornflour mix and cook on high flame till it becomes transparent. You have to stir continuously to avoid lumps and burnt bottom.
• Add pista essence, mix well and reduce the flame and continue cooking.You can see the mixture becoming more and more transparent and glossy.
• Add ghee 1 tbsp at a time . The mixture will start leaving the side of the pan and while stirring it will move along with the spoon as a single mass. Either you can stop cooking at this stage or if u want some what a rubbery texture cook for some more time.
• Transfer to the greased plate and smooth the top immediately. Let it cool for 1 or 2 hrs.
• Cut into desired shapes and serve.

Notes

• Sweetness was a little high for me. But I was afraid to alter the measurement coz am not sure whether it will effect the texture of the halwa.
• Original karachi halwa is in red, orange or yellow colour and uses cardamom for flavoring.
• You can add roasted nuts at the final stage of cooking, I cudnt add bcoz didnt have any.
• Using a nonstick pan makes the job easier.
• Can keep up to 1 week under refrigeration.
• The first pic was taken the next day, you can see refrigeration has slightly effected the transparency of the halwa but it has not effected the taste.