Today, we celebrate Divali or the festival of lights in Trinidad and Tobago. It is a public holiday also so I’m at home resting, but for a little while, because I have a lot of recipes to post. All Hindus in our country today end their fasting and will be celebrating in the evening (after 6 o’clock) with lots of food , no meat is prepared on this day though, and the lighting of deyas. Throughout the day there are lots of preparations going on in Hindu homes from cooking to cleaning and decorating. The young boys light firecrackers and burst bamboo to celebrate the festival also. Bursting of bamboo will have to be explained in another post, but I assure it is just as exciting.Anyhow I have to go and help in the kitchen; (remember I said it’s a Trini thing that we celebrate each others holidays in our own way!) so I leave with you Halwa. Coming up soon, today also, is Parsad another sweet that’s even more popular than Halwa. If I have time I’ll try to post throughout the day. Here’s Halwa. I have to go, they’re calling me now; I’m sure they want me help with the roti. Bye!
HALWA
397 g (1 small box) cream of wheat
1/2 cup butter
4 1/2 cups water
1 cup evaporated milk
1 3/4 cups sugar
cinnamon, vanilla essence to taste
peanuts, cherries, raisins and sliced almond to garnish (optional)
In deep pot pour the water, milk, sugar and spices and bring to boil until the sugar melts.
In another deep pot, parch the cream of wheat until golden brown on a medium heat.Keep turning the cream of wheat so it has an even brown colour.
Melt the butter in the liquid, remove from heat and set aside. 
Carefully, pour the liquid into the into theparched cream of wheat slowly, mixing continuously.
Continue to stir until mixture is well cooked and starts to leave the sides of the pot.
As it leaves the sides of the pot, you can now add your choice of garnish:peanuts, cherries, raisins and almonds and stir in.
Empty the mixture into a greased dish, smoothen out the surface,and set aside to cool. I just had to show my foodbuzz spatula in this picture ;^)
Cut into squares. This recipe will yield about 40 square halwas.I hope you try this recipe. Hint: I know 4o pieces of square halwas is a lot of sweet to make and distribute. I sometimes use half the ingredients throughout the recipe to make less. Coming up soon, look out for parsad. Oh! and Happy Divali to all my Hindu brothers and sisters in Trinidad and Tobago and the world.
P.S. I want to leave you with a little fact. During all the cooking today one cannot taste the food they’re preparing! Now that’s something to think about.
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farah
hey this was great ….i made it…..i just put some whole milk instead of water…i need to gain the weight …lol…love this site….keep it up 🙂
cherisse
Thanks for this recipe. After adding 2/3 of the butter, when do you add the rest?
Felix
That’s a typo, fixed it 🙂
dc
Allo Felix, what is Halwa Masala and in a recipe like the one above, was it about half a teaspoon of cinnamon that you added?
Felix
For the halwa masala read about it here. Yes you could average about 1/2 tsp but still adjust according to your taste.
Rudz
What is ‘cream of wheat’?
Felix
check here http://www.creamofwheat.com