Channa Dal Halwa | Chickpeas Halwa | SNC challenge # 6

As the world celebrates Women's Day today I would also love to share my wishes to all the lovely women in my life ~ my mom, my sisters, my friends, my cousins and every lovely reader. This is my wish for all of you today

Be bold. Be true. Be kind. Be you.

Happy Women's Day !!!

Chana Dal Halwa/ Burfi is a traditional Mugal sweet. It is an aromatic sweet that is loaded with ghee(clarified butter), milk, channa dal, sugar and nuts. Its very popular in the Northern part of India and is adored during festival seasons. For me this was a new sweet recipe, as I have never tried to do halwa with dal. But nevertheless I loved it so much. This is one big reason I am part of SNC Group (South Vs North). The group is divided into two teams south and north team where both of them compete against each other with a traditional recipe. For this month's SNC Challenge Kirti from Flavors from my kitchen challenged South team with a tempting Channadal halwa and Swasthi challenged the North team with aromatic Hyderabadi dum briyani.

Verdict ~ Channa Dal Halwa was super flavorful and melt in your mouth and we kept having more and more. Taste wise I felt it was similar to poli stuffing and close to sweet pongal taste. 

Serves ~ 2 generously

Cook & Prep time ~ 30 mins

Ingredients

1/2 Cup chana Dal/gram Dal/kadalai Paruppu
1/2 Cup ghee
1/4 Cup granulated white sugar
1-1/4 Cup milk (I used fatless)
2-3  cardamom pods, crushed
6-7 almonds and cashew nuts (chopped)

Method

• Wash and Soak dal in 1 Cup water for 4 hours.
• Pressure Cook the soaked dal in 3/4 Cup of water for 4-5 whistles.Remove extra water if any, let it cool down, set aside.
• Mash the dal using the back of spoon to have grainy paste
• Heat ghee in heavy bottom pan.Add mashed dal and fry on medium heat 15 minutes until raw smell does.By now you the will ghee separating  from dal.
• Now add 3/4 Cup milk and fry on high heat till it is well absorbed.Then Again add the remaining milk and cook on high flame. Take care not to burn the halwa, Keep stirring frequently.
• Finally add cardamom powder, sugar with chopped almonds and fry on high heat for another 5 minutes.By this the time, the halwa will start leaving the pan, and will come together as you stir.
• Keep a Shallow plate/tray greased with ghee ready, spread some chopped nuts on the plate. Take the halwa off the stove and pour it on the readied plate. Tap with back of spoon gently to spread the halwa. 
• If you want to slice it, then wait for 15-20 minutes for the halwa to cool. Cut them into slices and serve warm. Or do like how did and serve it as it is.
• Store the remaining in an air-tight container and keep in refrigerator  Before serving re-head in microwave for 15-20 secs

Linking this recipe to SNC Challenge hosted my Divya Pramil

Cooking with Seeds hosted by Priya Suresh aks