Cholar Daler Halwa

Pre-requisites

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Clean the dal well and soak it in water for 2-3 hours
Scrape/Grate the coconut.
Warm the pesta badam for 2-3 minutes and break into small pieces

Preparation

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- First boil the dal well in little water.
[The boiling must be good, but the shape of dal must remain intact]
- Grind the boiled dal in a grinder to wet powder.
[If you like, you can use seal-nora]
- Take around 25 gm ghee in a kadai and heat it in medium flame.
- When ghee warms up, add the grinned dal powder and fry it.
- First fry the dal on low-medium heat for 15 mins.
- Then increase the flame to medium-high & continue frying till dal becomes crumbly.
- When the dal turns little brown in color & aroma starts coming out, stop frying the dal.
[It will take another 10-15 mins]

- Now, prepare coconut milk
- Warm 1 liter water.
[You should be able to put your fingers]
- Put the scraped coconut in the water and chip (chotkano) for 2 minutes.
- Separate the coconut with a strainer.
- Squeeze out milk from the coconut.
[When you mix grated coconut in warm water, the milk comes out more easily]

Cooking

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- Warm 25-30 gm ghee in another kadai
- When the ghee is hot, add cardamom & bay leaf.
- Once aroma starts coming out, add the cocunut milk to it.
- Add sugar, cashew nuts and salt and boil the milk.
- When the milk starts boling, add the fried dal powder to it.
- Keep stirring it continuously.
[If you stop stirring, small solid block [gutley] will form]
- Continue to cook till you notice that the sticky nature of the halwa disappeared and it is more thick & dense. Your cooking is complete.

Shaping & Garnish

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- Take a flat plate and coat ghee on the surface.
- Pour the cooked halwa on the plate
- Coat some ghee on the back of a spatula
- Spread and flatten out the halwa across the plate.
- Make the halwa surface smooth.
[Add more ghee to the spatula back if needed, but not too much else the halwa will have prominent smell ghee]
- Sprinkle the Pistachio pieces and flatten them.
- Now, carefully cut the barfi shape with a knife.
- Put a raisin in the center of each barfi
You can eat Gram dal halwa alone, but you can try it with safeda roti too. It can remain good for a week in refrigerator.