Split moong dal slow-cooked in generous ghee with sugar and cardamom until deeply caramelised — the most labour-intensive and celebrated sweet of Rajasthan.
Ingredients
1 cup split yellow moong dal — soaked 3 to 4 hours
1 cup ghee
1 cup sugar
2 cups water — as sugar syrup (boil sugar with water)
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
A generous pinch of saffron soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk
2 tbsp almonds — thinly sliced
2 tbsp pistachios — thinly sliced
Method
Drain soaked moong dal. Grind to a smooth paste using minimal water.
Heat all 1 cup ghee in a heavy kadai on medium-low.
Add the ground moong dal paste.
Fry the moong paste in the ghee stirring continuously and without stopping — for 40 to 50 minutes.
The paste will go through many stages: first raw and lumpy, then softening, then colouring, then turning golden, finally becoming a deep golden with a nutty aroma.
The stirring must not stop or it will burn at the bottom.
Make the sugar syrup: boil sugar with 2 cups water until sugar dissolves. Keep warm.
When the moong dal is deeply golden and the ghee has separated, add the warm sugar syrup very carefully (it will spatter).
Stir vigorously and continuously until all moisture is absorbed and the halwa comes together.
Add cardamom, saffron milk, almonds and pistachios. Stir. Serve warm.