by Smita Singh 1 Comment
Bombay Karachi Halwa, also popularly known as corn flour Halwa is a humble Indian Mithai made with few simple and easily available ingredients.
These small square shaped Halwa available in different colors has earned a special place in our hearts due to its soft and chewy texture. This Halwa is part of my child hood memories that I wish to recollect in this blog. These memories are so common that you may find it so very relatable but nevertheless these fond memories are definitely worth revisiting.
Our definition of happiness evolves as we grow up. Things that seem so small and inconsequential now would fill my heart with joy and happiness as a child. A silly thing like a new fragrant eraser that Mom had just bought for me or sneaking out with my friends and slurping on new flavor of Ice-cream bought of my pocket money or licking on streaks of Mango juice that would roll down my bare hands with my grandmother keeping me company. Aah! Some very fond memories.
My YouTube channel is fast approaching the milestone of 25K subscribers and there are few subscribers who have been supporting me since my first video. They have reaffirmed their faith in me by their inspiring comments and egged me on with their critical comment, suggestions and ideas. I also do urge my viewers to share their food related memories and send recipe requests that they would want me to prepare for them. One of my supporter who is very dear to me is Mrs. Alka Suley, a Mumbai resident, a true foodie herself and a good home chef always willing to try out new dishes. Moreover, she shares with me all those small incidents and stories that takes me down the memory lane. I admire and cherish our interaction.
Alka tai (elder sister as fondly addressed in Marathi) is a big proponent of Microwave Cooking and is on lookout for recipes that can be made in Microwave. During one of our interaction, she expressed how fond she is of Bombay Karachi Halwa and how much she would love to see a recipe video on my channel on “Making Karachi Halwa in Microwave”. That simple recipe request was enough to bring back my child hood memories in a flash.
In the summers of 90s during our school vacations, as kids, we would play in our building compound. Our building premise was in a typical middle class locality, bearing stamp of ordinary living all over. We had quite a few trees in that premise and a Banyan tree prominently occupying space in the compound. The bark of that tree was hardly visible with strands of white colored threads tied to its trunk –referring to it being witness to Hindu festivities of VatPurnima.
We would be occupied all afternoon in our different games and sometime past noon an elderly Muslim gentleman possibly a Sexagenarian would come cycling in our lanes ringing the bell that marked his arrival. On the bicycle carrier he would carry a small aluminum box made of tin filled with Bombay Karachi Halwa. Those small goodies, each bearing different colors, would be wrapped in butter paper. What a spectacular sight it was for our little eyes. Priced at mere 50 paise we would make a pick based on our favorite colors and mine was raspberry red.
In the scorching summers, those little goodies were all that we needed. One piece of chewy rubbery sweet Halwa with crunch of cashews and melon seeds with a glass of water that we would ask for from some random house in that premise (no one would ever deny a glass of water, not even to a total stranger). This was our everyday routine for almost 2 months of summer vacations, and that elderly gentleman would appear every afternoon. However, he would disappear when our schools would reopen after the summer vacation, only to appear again during next summers. Somewhere between all this we grew up and stopped going out for outdoor play, too occupied in a race of ‘marks and percentage’ but the person who really lost in all this was the old gentleman who never appeared again.
My rendezvous with Karachi Halwa started again when Papa on the eve of Diwali would bring home a box of sweetmeat (Mithai) and some money as Diwali bonus. The sight of that Mithai box used to trigger the Diwali celebrations. As soon as he would enter house, it was my duty to light a Diya in the small Mandir at home and offer money and sweets to God for his blessings. Mom would take the money in her custody and I would polish the Mithai box. My favorite, of course was this ghee clad Halwa. My granny would joke about the Halwa and me-she would compare how those colorful Halwa would resemble my personality. God bless her pious soul.
All these lovely memories came flooding back when I decided to make a recipe video on “Bombay Karachi Halwa”. It was a special treat for that little young girl and it is a special treat even today.
Someone rightly said “Don’t let the child inside you die, life is beautiful!”
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Bombay Karachi Halwa-Corn Flour Halwa
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
- ¾th Cup+2 tbsp =200gms Sugar
- ½ Cup=50 gms Corn Flour
- 1 tsp Lime Juice
- 1 tsp Cardamom Powder
- 1 tbsp Melon Seeds
- 1 tbsp=5-6 Cashew Nuts
- Water
- Few drops of Green Food Color
- Clarified Butter
Instructions
- Take a Microwave Safe Bowl (MWS), and put Sugar. Add 150ml=1/2 CUp+2 tbsp Water. Add Lime Juice and mix well. Microwave on High for 6 mins.
- a) Mode: Microwave b) Power: 900W (High) c) Time: 6 mins d) Press Start. Cook uncovered
- While Sugar gets melted, let's make a smooth corn-flour batter. We have taken ½ Cup Corn Flour. So we will take ½ Cup water. Whisk the batter until we get rid of all the lumps
- After 6 mins, remove melted Sugar. Now, add Corn Flour batter. Corn Flour gets settled at the bottom, so stir it well before adding. Mix well. Cook on High heat for 3 mins
- a) Mode: Microwave b) Power: 900W (High) c) Time: 3 mins d) Press Start. Cook uncovered
- After 3 mins, corn flour mixture looks transparent and jelly like. Add 3-4 drops of green food color. You can add food color of your choice-raspberry red, orange, golden yellow.
- Add 1 tbsp Clarified Butter. Ghee is an essential ingredient in this Halwa. Reducing the quantity of Clarified butter will make the Halwa dry and mix well.
- a) Mode: Microwave b) Power: 900W (High) c) Time: 3 mins d) Press Start. Cook uncovered
- After 3 mins, remove the bowl and stir. Add Melon Seeds, chopped Cashewnuts and Cardamom Powder. Add 1 tbsp Clarified Butter and mix well.
- Addition of Clarified Butter gives a wonderful glaze to this Halwa. Mix well and microwave on high for 3 mins
- a) Mode: Microwave b) Power: 900W (High) c) Time: 3 mins d) Press Start. Cook uncovered
- Remove after 3 mins and stir well. Halwa has become smooth and transparent.
- Take a large glass tray and grease it with clarified butter. Put Halwa in this tray. With a spatula, flatten Halwa and give it square shape. Let it rest for 30 mins at room temperature.
- Unmold from tray. Cut into squares
- Bombay Karachi Halwa is ready.
Click to watch recipe video
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