Moong Dal Halwa

This is a winter wedding sweet and a cold-morning sweet, and you can tell it is coming long before you see it. Somewhere in the house a heavy kadhai is being stirred, and the smell of dal roasting in ghee keeps getting stronger. What was a pale sticky paste half an hour ago has broken into grains. It goes darker, then golden, then ghee starts pooling at the edges. Served warm in a steel katori with almond slivers on top, it is heavy, rich and worth every minute.

Ghee is not one of the ingredients here, it is the cooking method. Gir Cow's A2 Ghee is what fries the ground dal from raw to nutty over nearly an hour, and it is what keeps the halwa loose and grainy instead of setting into a block. Use less and the halwa turns pasty and tastes raw. Our ghee is made the bilona way from Gir cow milk in small batches.

The rule: there is no shortcut to the roasting. The mixture goes through three stages, sticky paste, then lumpy, then loose grains with ghee separating. Only when you reach the third stage is the raw dal smell truly gone. Rushing this is the single reason home moong dal halwa tastes flat.

How to make it

1. Drain the soaked dal well and leave it in a colander for 15 minutes. Grind to a coarse, thick paste with 2 to 3 tbsp water only. It should feel like wet sand, not a smooth batter. Extra water here adds twenty minutes to your roasting.
2. Heat the ghee in a heavy kadhai on low. Add the ground dal and start stirring. For the first 15 minutes it will be a sticky mass that clings to the spoon and the pan. Keep going.
3. Around 25 to 30 minutes it starts breaking into lumps. Press the lumps against the side of the pan with the spoon to break them. The colour is still pale.
4. Between 40 and 55 minutes it turns loose and grainy, goes from cream to light gold to a deep golden brown, and ghee begins to separate and pool at the sides. It will smell nutty and fried. That is the finish line. Add the sooji now if using and roast 2 minutes more.
5. While that happens, warm the milk and water together in a separate pan and keep it hot. Add the saffron milk to it if using.
6. Pour the hot liquid into the roasted dal in three or four additions, standing back, stirring hard after each. It will splutter and swell. Wait for each addition to be absorbed before the next.
7. Add the sugar and the khoya if using. The halwa will loosen again and look watery for a few minutes. Keep stirring on low for 8 to 10 minutes until it thickens, comes together and the ghee shows once more.
8. Add the cardamom powder, half the nuts and the raisins. Cover and rest 5 minutes off the heat. Serve warm in steel katoris with the remaining nuts on top.

Tips

• We do not sell khoya or saffron. Both are optional here. If you want them, buy fresh soft mawa from a halwai and real long-strand kesar, not colour.
• Use your heaviest pan. A thin pan will scorch the dal at the bottom while the top is still raw, and burnt dal cannot be rescued.
• Never add cold liquid. Cold milk into hot roasted dal makes hard lumps that never break down. Keep the milk and water simmering in a second pan.
• Storage: it keeps 5 days in the fridge and freezes for a month. Reheat in a pan with 1 tbsp ghee and a splash of milk, never dry.
• If it tastes raw or pasty, the roast was cut short. There is no fix afterwards, so watch for the third stage: loose grains and visible ghee at the sides.