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Hare Krsna. I need help preparing prasadam. I have trouble with even the simplest dishes. Take halava, for example. Mine never tastes very good. If somebody out there knows how to make really good halava, please tell me (in detail). I'd like to hear some new ways to flavor it too. I've tried blueberries, nuts, raisons, strawberries, raspberries, dates. For some reason mine doesn't taste near as good as what I've had at the temples. What is the secret? I thought I had finally found the problem when a friend told me to get "soji" at an Indian market, instead of using common cream of wheat. No, it's still very mediocre.
Also, I'm very fond of malpuras. I've tried to make them a few times. Although they've always been tasty, the cakes always end up hard in the middle and don't soak up the liquid, no matter how slow I cook them. Why?
If anybody answers this, I'll tell you about my problems with sweet rice and laddhus.
Yes, getting a cook book would be the first step. I have several. From "The Higher Taste" I've learned to make pretty good pakoras and a few other things. From "The Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking" I've learned to make pretty good dal. There are a few halava recipes in that book but the ones I've tried didn't come out well. I'm hoping somebody will give me more ideas on how to flavor it. Thanks.
Many traditional recipes are also there and ones which are also masterminded by the devotees at temple.
We have a food lab at our temple where we conduct lot of research and come out with new recipes for the pleasure of our Deities. We also revive the extinct dishes. Kindly do visit.
Thank you Prabhu,
I looked over all the recipes from your website and am going to try a few things. Still looking for info on making great halava. Also would like to learn a couple good veggie dishes (must be very easy). Have a happy Gaura Purnima!
Currently my mother is out for Vraja Mandala Parikrama for a month. Once she is back, I shall take recipes from her and send you the same.
She is favored by the Lord to some extent and makes good dishes for our Jagannatha, Baladeva and Srimati Subhadra at home. On ekadashi she prepared 64 non-grain dishes and in that 7 were Halvas, different flavors some even made from raw vegetables.
If for any reason I forget, it will be very helpful if you could send me an email at aishwarya@radhashyamsundar.com
Hare Krsna Aishwarya Kumar,
Please accept my humble obeisances. Thank you for sending me pictures of your beautiful deities. Jaya Jaganatha! Yes, I would very much appreciate any recipes you could send me. Please offer my respects to your mother.
I will send you a reminder in a few weeks if I don't hear from you. Thanks, Prabhu. You're very kind. Haribol!
Hari bol
If $ is no problem, try using maple syrup in place of sugar water. Some devotees use milk instead of water also.
Have you ever heard of hickory nuts? They are a wild nut of the northern US. Very small but quite tasty. Similar but a little better flavored than pecans. The best halava I ever made was with maple syrup and hickory nuts. Always use unsalted butter of course. Remember , we are trying to please Krishna's senses not our own. Take this challenge: Distribute the first 90% to others and see how the last 10% tastes.
By the way, if you are in the US, I can send a small sample of Hickory nuts. You can try cracking the little rascals. All glories to Srila Prabhupada Gadai
Hari bol Gadai Prabhu, I've never heard of using maple syrup instead of sugar water. Maybe I'll try that. I have tried using milk instead of water, but that just made my already too heavy halava, heavier. I've heard of hickory nuts, but don't think I've ever tried them. I just made some walnut and date halava. It's very good, but as always, heavy. Do I need to cook the combined ingredients a little longer before turning off the heat and covering? Will that make it lighter? When I tried that once before, it came out too dry.
I am new to the forum and I have come across this discussion.
I have keen interests in kitchen although I am not active in cooking
since my mum is doing that for the time being.
I see that you have received some info from other prabhus.
However, I have bought a book from Prabhu Kurma Das called Great Vegetarian Dishes
and there is a recipe called Walnut and Semolina Halava.
In case you want to get the details of that, I can post it in a reply for you.
Otherwise, nice to know you. You seem to have been in Krsna Consciousness for a long time
and have many stories to tell.
Hello Jay, Hare Krsna. Thanks for writing. Actually I was "in the Hare Krsna movement" only about 3 and a half years, as I left shortly after Srila Prabhupada departed. But I've continued to practice Krsna consciousness by chanting, reading Srila Prabhupada's books, and offering my food. However, I have few good qualities, if any.
I have never seen Kurma's cookbooks, although I've heard of them of course. I would appreciate the details of that halava recipe if it's not too much trouble. Maybe I'll order that book. I also would like to learn more veggie recipes, something with eggplant. Thanks again. Hari bol!
Did you ever get a satisfactory answer to your question? For a year and a half I cooked for the deities and devotees at the farm where I lived. If you'd like, I'd be happy to share how I was taught to cook halava. It always turns out buttery and fluffy for me, but there are a couple of tricks to it. I also learned to make sweetrice, laddus, etc. I'd be happy to pass on what I learned. Do you ever make Simply Wonderfuls?
Hare Krsna Mataji. Thanks for your message. About halava, mine usually turns out heavy and not so tasty. Sometimes it comes out ok, but never delicious. I used to use cream of wheat. Then I bought soji at the Indian market. It tastes a little different, still not great. I thought maybe there is some other ingredient that I'm missing.
There's 2 things I make pretty well: pakoras and laddus. My sweet rice is so-so. I think I'm using the wrong type of rice. It's been years since I made simply wonderfuls. I remember the ingredients but forgot the proportions.
I'd also like to learn a few simple veggie dishes. I usually just boil some potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and peas, then add lots of butter and sour cream and spices.
I've got 2 teenage sons who would like to be strict vegetarians like their dad, so I need to learn to make tasty dishes.
I appreciate your help and I like your photos of Srila Prabhupada. Hari bol!!!
Thank you for replying so quickly. We've all been in close contact, then in less close contact and then
resume close contact. I've always thought of getting closer contact with devotees through the internet
and forums but feeling lazy or finding other reasons/activities not to do it.
So, now I will try my best. I am very happy to be able to give you this recipe.
I hope you will be able to make it and will like it.
Semolina Halava
Time: about 30 minutes
Yield: enough for 6 to 8 persons
2.5 cups (625ml) water
1.25 cups (310 ml) raw sugar
0.5 cup (125ml) raisins
140g (5 ounces) unsalted butter
1.25 cups (310ml) coarse-grained semolina
1/3 cup (85 ml) walnut pieces
1. Combine the water, sugar, and raisins in a 2 litre/quart saucepan.
Place over moderate heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring to the boil,
then reduce the heat to very low and cover with a tight-fitting lid.
2. Place the butter in a 2 or 3 litre/quart non-stick saucepan and over
fairly low heat, stirring occasionally, melt the butter without scorching.
Add the semolina. Slowly and rythmically stir-fry the grains until they
darken to a tan colour and become aromatic (about 20 mins).
Add the walnut pieces about half-way through the roasting.
Stirring more carefully, raise the heat under the grains.
3. Raise the heat under the sugar water and bring the the syrup
to a rolling boil. Remove the saucepan of semolina and butter from
the heat, slowly pouring the hot syrup into the semolina, stirrring
steadily. The grains may at first splutter, but will quickly cease as the
liquid is absorbed.
4. Return the pan to the stove and stir steadily over the low heat
until the grains fully absorb the liquid, start to form into a pudding-like
consistency, and pull away from the sides of the pan. Place a tight-fitting
lid on the saucepan and cook over the lowest possible heat for 5 mins.
Turn off the heat, allow the halava to steam, covered, for an additional
5 mins. Serve hot in dessert bowls as it is, or with the toppings suggested
above.
Hare Krsna. Thank you, Prabhu. I have never used semolina. I've always used cream of wheat or soji, and prepared it exactly the same way. I will try it.
When I was taught to cook, I was taught not to use measuring implements or timers. I find this frees me up a great deal because it's easy to scale recipes to large or small crowds and not using a timer is really helpful when you need to cook over an open fire, as opposed to an electric range. The recipe quoted to you above is all over the internet, but it doesn't really give the secrets to fluffy halava. Here's how I was taught to make it, leaving out the parts I'm sure you already know.
The recipe I was taught is:
1 part butter
1 part raisins
1 part walnuts
2 parts semolina (this is the same as Cream of Wheat)
2 parts sugar
4 parts water
Melt the butter and stir in the semolina (semolina is just a name for a particular grind of wheat). Roast it over low heat, stirring it every few minutes so you mix the hot grain on the bottom and sides of the pan into rest.
While it's roasting, I like to put the raisins, water and sugar into another pan and bring them to a boil. Doing this early lets the raisins soak in the hot syrup, making them extra-plump. (Don't forget to check on the semolina.) You don't want the water to boil away, so when it boils, turn it down to a low, too.
One of the secrets of fluffy halava is roasting the grain to the right point, and you must watch and listen for that. When it's first roasting, you'll notice the butter foams a bit between stirrings and the grain turns whitish. Eventually the butter stops foaming. Depending on how hot your burner is, the semolina will turn differing shades of golden brown, but you must listen. When it is roasted just right the semolina will sound like coarse wet sand when you drop it off the spoon. If you actually study it while you cook it, you will notice it is changed slightly.
Anyway, this is the time to turn up the heat again under the sugar syrup. Fats and oils don't boil like water. They just get hotter and hotter until they burst into flame. So, that semolina is much hotter than the water can ever be. When the water hits it, some of it's going to explode into steam. You want to reduce that as much as possible. That's why you want it boiling before you pour it into the semolina.
Okay. So you've stirred the water into the grain. Turn the heat up to high and stir slowly. When it begins o boil, stir rapidly. This keeps it from boiling so much and splattering you. (Yep, I have halava scars.) You keep cooking it on high until it thickens up to the point that it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and when you draw the spoon across the bottom of the pan it leaves a trail behind it very nearly to the bottom, if not all the way down. Then cover it tightly and let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving.
With halava, you want to force the moisture out of the grain, forcing it to take in butter. This is what roasting does. You have to cook it in water, but you don't want it to absorb too much. This is the difference between the cream of wheat our parents cooked for us as a breakfast cereal and halava. Not enough water cooked away makes heavy halava.
Prabhupada is recorded on tape as saying my guru was a good cook. He taught us to cook at our farm. He may have made some errors, but his cooking wasn't off. I'd be happy to share recipies with you, if you like.
Huh. That last paragraph isn't very clear. What I meant was: Prabhupada taught my guru. My guru taught me. My guru made some mistakes but they had nothing to do with cooking.
I know you understand what I meant, Bhagavan prabhu, but I don't want some later reader to get the idea I have offensive or puffed up attitudes toward Prabhupada.
I'm on prescription Happy Pills for a back injury. Can I use that for an excuse?
I was a little confused when I first read that last paragraph. But then I read it again and understood. I never had the good fortune to meet Hansaduta but have admired his chanting since my first visit to an ISKCON temple. I came home that day with the album "In Every Town and Village" and played it over and over. Are you familiar with that album? Hansaduta sings that song about Krsna's incarnations. It's one of my all-time favorites. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
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