Godhumai Halwa / Wheat Halwa

This is the recipe given by Srivalli for August ICC. I couldn't participate in that challenge. But I wanted to try out the recipe. So I prepared it today and I should say that I succeeded in my attempt. The halwa was so soft and I could cut it to pieces. My hubby liked it a lot. I couldn't stop him from eating. This halwa is very rich because of the cashew and ghee which goes into the preparation. I kept 4-5 pieces at home and sent the whole batch to my hubby's office.

Ingredients:
Wheat Berries-1cup
Sugar-2 1/2cups
Cardamom Powder-1tsp
Ghee-1 1/2cups
Hot water-1cup
Water-1cup
Cashew-1/4cup
Food colour-2-3pinches

Procedure:
1. Wash and soak the wheat berries overnight.
2. The next day, drain water and grind it in a mixer grinder using 2 cups of water.
3. Strain the milk through a metal sieve.
4. Take the glutinous residue to the mixer again. Add 1 cup of water and grind it again.
5. Strain it again.
6. Repeat the grinding once again. Strain the third milk. Discard the glutinous part.
7. Cover and keep the milk aside for 2hours.
8. The thin liquid will float and the thicker milk will settle to the bottom.
9. Carefully remove the thin milk and discard.
10. Break the cashew into small pieces and fry it in a little ghee until golden. Keep it aside.
11. In a heavy bottomed pan, add sugar and water. Bring it to boil.
12. Let it come to single thread consistency.
13. Add the wheat milk and stir it continuous. Add the milk on low flame, because the milk tends to become thick fast. If you don't stir properly the whole mixture will become lumpy.
14. Add food colour and mix well.
15. Add a cup of hot water and mix well. This is to slow the cooking process.
16. Once the water is evenly mixed, add the cashew and a ladle full of ghee.
17. Keep on stirring until the mixture absorbs all the ghee. Do it on medium flame to avoid burning.
18. Add ladle full of ghee at regular intervals. Be careful because after each addition of ghee the whole mixture splutters a lot.
19. When the mixture stops absorbing ghee, the perfect consistency is reached.(I added little more ghee than the given amount) It no more sticks to the pan and shapes into a ball.
20. Pour the mixture into a tray. You don't have to grease it because the halwa itself contains ghee and it will not let the halwa stick.
21. Allow it to cool for 2 hours.
22. When completely cool, invert the tray on a cutting board. Cut into small squares or diamonds.
23. Enjoy.

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