It took me a while to embrace Pakistani desserts. As a child I was much more interested in the traditional American sweets of my peers. I wanted brownies, cakes, and cookies and definitely not mithai, kheer, and halwa. I wasn’t thrilled by the idea of a brown bowl of semolina handed to me on Eid as I donned a fancy new shalwar kameez sent over from relatives in Pakistan. Halwa is a ghee laden, rich semolina pudding with fragrant saffron and cardamom often enjoyed on celebratory and auspicious occasions. Like most life lessons, we learn them far too late. As an adult I found myself embracing the brown pudding I once scoffed at. Swapping out the ghee for a toasty brown butter, vanilla extract, and flaky sea salt not only adds depth and sweetness, but is also how I made it mine.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 4 to 6
⅓ cup pistachios
⅓ cup almonds
1 cup (200g) sugar
Pinch of saffron
1 cup (16 Tbsp / 226g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup (170g) fine semolina, aka "Sooji Fine" in South Asia grocery stores
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
Flaky sea salt, for serving
PREPARATION
Step 1 Heat a medium sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the pistachios and almonds and toast until just fragrant, 4 to 6 minutes, tossing occasionally. Transfer to a food processor to grind into fine crumbs. Set aside and wipe out any nut fragments from the pan to use for the brown butter.
Step 2 Prepare the sugar syrup and brown butter simultaneously. For the syrup, combine the sugar, saffron, and 3 cups of water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a slow simmer, just until the sugar dissolves, about 8 to 10 minutes. Once dissolved, turn off the heat.
Step 3 For the brown butter, add the butter into the same saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly with a spatula as the butter foams and bubbles up. It will transform from a milky yellow to golden and then a deep amber, 8 to 12 minutes.
Step 4 Once the butter has browned, with the heat still at medium, pour the semolina into the butter and mix well to combine. It will have the texture of a grainy foam. Add the vanilla extract, cardamom, and salt. Mix well, toasting and stirring the semolina into the brown butter until the color changes from pale to sandy, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Step 5 Next, carefully pour in the hot sugar syrup, be careful as it will splash and bubble up. The halwa will immediately thicken into a porridge-like texture. Cook, stirring often for 6 to 8 minutes, until it reaches a consistency similar to thick pudding with a grainy texture.
STEP 6 Turn off the heat, cover with a lid, and let it sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes you should see some of the brown butter rise to the surface. Give it one more stir before pouring onto a serving dish. Scatter the ground nuts all over and finish with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt. Serve warm.
