Suji Halva or Rava no Sheero

Navratri just got over yesterday. I make prasad on all 10 days of navaratri. This year I made Rava no Shiro(Suji Halwa) Ghau na lot no sheero (whole wheat Halwa), Sevayia (or Biranj), Firni, God papdi(or Sukhadi) etc.
Here I am providing recipe for Suji halwa. I will try to post recipes of the rest of the sweets as soon as I can.
We get different types of Suji here in the USA. Try to find the variety which is not very fine, but not very coarse either. If you go for the very fine variety, the sheero will turn out very sticky and if you go for the very coarse variety, it will turn out very dry.

Ingredients:
1 Cup Suji (Medium grain)
3.5 Cups Milk (Whole milk preferable)
2 Tablespoon Ghee (you can use up to 4 teaspoon per your preference, I use less ghee in cooking)
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon coarsely ground Cardamom
1/4th Teaspoon Nutmeg Powder
A pinch of Saffron
1/4 cup Golden Raisins
1/4 Cup Slivered Almonds

Method:
Start by heating up milk on one stove. Bring it to a boil. Then turn down the heat and let it simmer. In another pan, heat the ghee. Once it is hot, add the suji to it and mix well. Turn the flame to medium-low and roast the suji until it turns pink or light brown. Stir often to prevent burning. When the suji is done, turn the flame to medium-high and add the hot milk to the rava. It is very necessary to add hot milk to the rava, but be very careful while adding milk to the rava. Stand as far as you can, as the milk will splatter once it touches the hot pan. Mix well and break all lumps with the help of the back of the spatula. Stir constantly for a minute or two, then add the sugar, cardamom powder, nutmeg powder, saffron and raisins. Stir to mix well. Cook until the suji soaks up all the milk. Stir frequently to avoid formation of lumps. While stirring you will realize that the mix has started to come together to form a big lump (in about 10-12 minutes). Turn off the gas at this time. Garnish with slivered almond and server.

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Rava no Sheero or Satanarayan pooja sheera

Rava no sheero/shiro or Satyanarayan pooja sheera is a sweet made with suji, ghee, sugar and milk. During Satyarnaray poojas this sweet is made as an offering to the God. Though the recipe doesn’t require too much ingredients, people say that it takes a lot of trial to get it to a right consistency.

Here is the recipe for making ravo no sheero
Ingredients:
1 Cup Suji (Rava)
3/4th Cup Sugar (1:1 is a general rule of thumb for making sweets, but we eat a little less sweet at our house)
3/4th cup + 2 Teaspoons Ghee,
3 Cups milk
2 Teaspoons Golden Raisins, for garnishing
2 Teaspoons Sliced Almonds, for garnishing
1 Pinch Saffron

Method:
In a heavy bottom pan, heat the ghee and add the rava to it. Roast it on medium low flame until a light aroma is released and the rava turns light golden brown (12-15 minutes). While the rava is roasting on one stove, boil the milk in another pan and the saffron to it. Once it comes to a boil, reduce the flame to medium and boil for 5-7 more minutes. The quantity of the milk should reduce down from 3 cups to 2.5 cups.

Once the rava is roasted and the milk has thickened a little bit, take the rava off the stove and move it as much away from you as you can. Now add the milk to it. Be very careful while adding the milk as it will splatter everywhere as soon as it comes in touch with the hot rava. Stir and mix well and return to the stove on medium heat. The milk will be absorbed by the rava within a minute or two adding it to the rava.

Now add half the sugar to this mixture. Stir and mix together making sure no sugar sticks to the bottom of the pan. Once the sugar gets incorporated, add the rest of the sugar to it. Stir and mix continuously until it dissolves completely and the mixture starts to come together looking like a big lump. At this point, add most of the raisins and almonds to it. Mix well and take off the flame. Garnish with the rest of the raisins and almonds. Serve hot.

Note: This is my mom’s recipe. While making the sheera at home, I used a little less than 3/4th cups of ghee. I must say that it didn’t change the taste much, but the texture of the sheera was a little drier than what I am used to. I would recommend using the same amount of ghee mentioned in this recipe to get a good texture of the sheera.

PS: Sorry no picture of the sheera:(
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