Today happens to be my mother's birthday and I wanted to make her day extra-special. To be honest, I am an introvert and I'm not that good with expressing feelings. So even though I love mummy very much but I hadn't really gone out of the way to express my affection for her before. But the last few days, I don't know why, I was feeling really emotional about my mother and today I wanted to surprise her by preparing the breakfast myself, that too a dessert because she has got a sweet tooth. Though I am not that good a cook and except for the occasional noodles or egg omelettes or tea and coffee, I have seldom spent much time in the kitchen (unless of course when mummy needs some help) but today being such a special occasion, I wanted to give her a sweet beginning to the day. I wanted to make her feel special.
Since the last week or so, I had been planning for this day, how I would wake up early and finish up all the kitchen chores like washing up the previous night's utensils and also cleaning up the kitchen counter-top before she woke up. That is exactly what I did this morning. I wanted to give her a break from the morning chores. But the real surprise for her was going to be the dessert that I was planning to make for her. I took the help of internet and browsed through quite a few delectable dessert recipes. Some of them looked really good and enticing but I feared about whether I would be able to make them successfully. Being a total novice, I didn't want to take a chance with a complicated recipe, had my attempt failed, it would have spoiled the occasion. So after much brain-storming and going through several you-tube tutorials and recipes, I finally settled on preparing Besan Ka Halwa for the day and for that I followed Masterchef Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe. Not only is the dessert fairly easy to cook but it also tastes wonderfully well, and on top of that, it brings back my childhood memories -- how I used to relish eating the sweet dish whenever mummy prepared it. I knew that I wouldn't be able to replicate the same taste of the halwa like mummy used to make, but I wanted to give a good try. So I got down to work.
But since mummy has diabetes, so I couldn't have used the normal sugar. Therefore I decided to substitute it with Sugar Free Natura. Sugar Free Natura contains Sucralose - a sugar derivative that gives the same sweetness of sugar but without that many calories. Thus it is an ideal sugar substitute for the diabetics and all those who are conscious about their weight and fitness.
Additionally I also made a little modification to the original halwa recipe -- since mummy used to love eating chocolates before diabetes, so I added a little cocoa powder too to the halwa to give a chocolaty taste. This is how I prepared Besan Ka Halwa, the recipe is very simple.
Ingredients that are needed:
Gram flour (or Besan) 2 cups
Desi Ghee (clarified butter) 1/2 cup
Sugar Free Natura 1/2 cup (had it been normal sugar, 1 cup would have been used)
Cocoa Powder 2 tbps
Milk 2 cups
Raisins about 2 tbspns
Cashewnuts about 10-12, chopped
Almonds about 8-10, chopped
Green cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
How to prepare Besan Ka Halwa:
My mother tells me that halwas are best cooked in thick bottommed pans. I used a kadhai (or wok) for the purpose. After heating it up for a minute or so, I added the gram flour and dry roasted it on low flame for about eight to ten minutes, stirring continuously. A distinct smell starts coming out as you dry roast the gram flour.
Then I added the desi ghee to the roasted gram flour and mixing them nicely, I continued to stir. This needs to be done for another four to five minutes until the gram flour turns slightly golden brown.
Now was the turn to add milk to the mixture. Even as I was adding the milk slowly, I was also simultaneously stirring the gram flour mixture so that no lumps were formed.
After a few minutes, when the milk almost got absorbed, I added 1 cup of Sugar Free Natura, the cocoa powder and also the green cardamon powder and mixed them up nicely. I also added the raisins, the crushed cashewnuts and three-fourths of the chopped almonds. Turning the mixture up and down with the spatula, I let the halwa mixture to cook for a couple of more minutes.
Now it was ready to be served. By this time, mummy had woken up and was taken by surprise on finding me cooking in the kitchen, that too so early in the morning. Adding the remain of the crushed almonds over the halwa, I took the bowl to her and wished her Happy Birthday. She had tears in her eyes and hugged me tightly and blessed me so much. When I told her that since I had used Sugar Free Natura, so she could eat the halwa as much as she wanted to, she was so happy.
The icing on the cake was that the taste had actually come out really well. For a moment, I couldn't believe that it was me who had prepared it. Mummy loved every bit of the Besan Ka Halwa and that made my day. :)
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