When I wanted some raw tight tomatoes only 1/2 kg, my maid bought 1 kg, over-ripe tomatoes, which were trying to get spoiled within 2 days. While when I buy tomatoes, I just keep it out and it lasts more than 2-3 weeks ! I hate food getting wasted, so boiled the tomatoes, made juice, thinking my dear hubby will drink tomato juice with salt and pepper, as they're supposed to be good to reduce muscle cramps. He just refused to drink it, I had one glass of juice, then there were almost 400 ml juice left. I kept it in the fridge, was debating how to make sweet from it. There, an idea stuck, as I had bought a packet of fox-nut, thought it was time to use them. So, I roasted a cup of fox-nut on slow flame, cooled and powdered it.
Now let me come to my simple ingredients for this halwa
INGREDIENTS
tomato juice 400 ml roughly
fox nut when powdered was 1/2 the quantity of the juice
corn flour same quantity of powdered fox nut
sugar same quantity of juice
salt a pinch
water 1 1/2 times the juice
ghee/ clarified butter 2 tbsp
cardamom pdr/ essence 1/2 tsp
METHOD
tomato juice made fresh at home, by boiling tomatoes, straining it.
In my non-stick pan, I added little juice, added little fox nut pdr, mixed well, added some more pdr and mixed well, added rest of the fox-nut pdr, mixed well adding little more tomato juice.
then I added corn flour little at a time, mixing well, adding more juice each time
once I finished mixing cornflour well with tomato juice, added sugar and 1 1/2 times the water, mixed well.
I kept the mixture on medium heat, kept stirring continuously, or else, having added corn flour, it will form lumps.
I kept stirring for about 10-2 minutes, stirring well, the mixture started thickening
I added 1 tbsp of ghee, mixed well stirring, till all the ghee was well absorbed
again kept stirring for another 2-3 minutes, added 1 tbsp ghee, mixed well
Once the mixture started leaving the sides of the pan, and when I touched the mixture, it wasn't sticking to my fingers, added cardamom pdr. mixed well
I switched off the gas, kept stirring for another minute
then I poured the mixture on a greased plate and allowed it to set for about 45 minutes
then I cut into pieces and was ready to gobble up for my dear hubby, who couldn't make out the tomato juice in it. ( he is not a fan of tomato like me !)
If I had kept it for some more time, it would have set well, as I had to wash the dishes, wanted to wash all at one go, so hurriedly sliced the halwa, the first ones didn't come as one piece, but later ones came out neatly.
Now due to pandemic and locked down, no maids, as food is eaten at home, I constantly have dishes to wash !