"Ghee, Nut and Maida Flour " Halwa

So India won the World Cup Cricket 2011..It was a momentous day for team and the cricket crazy Indians.While me and my hubby were flying high over India's magnificent triumph over Sri Lanka we were brought to earth by none other than our sweet son --Yeah, A choked on a big chunk of juicy "Methley Plum" and gave us quite a scare. I was wondering if I should call 911 or do a "Heimlich maneuver" but wasn't really sure how. But God is always around to take care of little ones. He has designed and installed the magic of "Puke mechanism" in them. Don't you think of it as magic? I do. So what went in did come out along with morning brunch, sticky mucus and a few other technicolored stuff that we dared not inspect closer. Took us nearly half an hour to cleanup after..Nothing like a hard dose of reality to bring us back to earth. My son's timing is always perfect. :). The one good thing about it was that I didn't die of the scare my son gave me.A person can only handle so much of excitement in one day!
Anyways, many of my blog buddies decided  to make/bake something sweet to salute the "Boys in Blue". And I couldn't think of anything better and more appropriate dessert than this quick Halwa that can be made from basic pantry ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 Cup Maida Flour (Finely Milled Wheat Flour)
• 1-1/4 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 2-1/2 Cups Water
• 1 Cup Clarified Butter  "Ghee" or (1/2 Cup Olive Oil + 1/2 Cup Clarified Butter)
• 1/2 Tsp Cardamom Powder
• 1/4 Cup Cashews
• Orange Food Color (Optional) 

Procedure:

• Heat about a tbsp of Clarified Butter and "lightly" brown the cashews. Set aside.
• Make the "sugar syrup" by placing water and sugar in a pan and cooking it on a medium flame for about 15 minutes. It doesn't have to be extremely sticky.

• In a pan, dry fry the flour for about 5 minutes until it is slightly browned.
• Add the Clarified butter to the flour and keep stirring until it resembles a coarse meal.
• Pour the sugar syrup by ladle-fuls to the flour mixture - stir until the flour thickens

• Add more sugar syrup.Repeat the above step. Continuous stirring is the key.

• Throw in the browned cashews to the flour along with some more syrup.If using the food color now would be the time to add it.(I skipped the food coloring this time).

• Repeat until you exhaust all the sugar syrup. The "halwa" should come away from the sides of the pan.

• After nearly 20 minutes of stirring and adding this is how it should look like. (Add 2tbsp more ghee as a finishing touch if you prefer a more decadent version).

• Serve warm, cold or at room temperature.

Makes 5-6 Small Servings.

Enjoy!