Rajasthani Nagori Halwa Wheat Fenugreek Sweet Nagaur

Method

1. 1

   Make sugar syrup: Boil sugar with 2 cups water until completely dissolved. Keep warm.

2. 2

   Fry cashews: Fry cashews in 1 tsp ghee until golden. Remove and keep.

3. 3

   Heat ghee: Heat 1/2 cup ghee in a heavy, wide pan on medium-low.

4. 4

   Add fenugreek and asafoetida: Add the coarsely ground roasted fenugreek and a pinch of asafoetida to the hot ghee. Cook 30 seconds — the fenugreek will bloom in the ghee and smell intensely warm and slightly bitter.

5. 5

   Add wheat flour: Add the wheat flour immediately. Stir and begin roasting.

6. 6

   Roast on medium-low: Roast stirring continuously for 10 to 12 minutes until the flour turns deep golden and the entire mixture smells of deeply roasted wheat, ghee and fenugreek.

7. 7

   Add warm sugar syrup: Add the warm sugar syrup carefully — it will spit. Stir vigorously and continuously.

8. 8

   Cook until thick: The halwa thickens rapidly. Cook stirring for 4 to 5 minutes until it pulls away from the pan sides.

9. 9

   Add cardamom: Add cardamom powder. Stir.

10. 10

    Serve: Add fried cashews. Serve warm in small portions — the fenugreek makes this halwa warming and the slight bitterness is characteristic and intentional.

11. 11

    Note: Nagori Halwa is specific to Nagaur — a city in central Rajasthan between Jodhpur and Bikaner, famous for the Nagaur Cattle Fair (one of the largest in India after Pushkar). The fenugreek seeds in the halwa are a specifically Nagauri touch — fenugreek is widely grown in Nagaur district (which is one of the major fenugreek-producing areas of India) and used in local cooking more liberally than elsewhere. The slight bitterness of fenugreek in a sweet preparation is the Nagauri signature.