Tapioca Halwa

Yesterday being Janmashtami, I wanted to prepare some new sweet that I had not tried eating or making earlier. I had got this tapioca for dosa making and it came handy in my halwa making. Kundan is fond of Thirunelvelli halwa and keeps prodding me to try it at home, but I was too skeptical for the effort and knack it demands. Surprisingly, the tapioca halwa reminded us in taste and texture the wheat halwa. I have now earned some confidence through this to venture into making the actual ‘irrutu kadai halwa’… Ok, now about this tapioca halwa, it is pretty simple and yumm. I won’t cheat you calling it a healthy one though ;) After all it ate some sugar and is flab-ed with ghee.

Serves:  2

Preparation Time:  5 minutes

Cooking Time:  20 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Tapioca (Maravallikizhangu) – half a foot long

2.    Ghee – 4 tbsp

3.    Sugar – ½ cup

4.    Kesar color – 1 pinch (optional)

5.     Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

6.    Milk – few tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Wash, cut the tapioca into 2 or 3 pieces and boil for at least 6 whistles.

Step 2: Peel the cooked tapioca skin and chop it roughly into small bits.

Step 3: Grind it using a mixer jar or mash using potato masher but generally it has fiber and is hard so grinding is a better option. While mashing use some milk if it is lacking moisture.

Step 4: Heat a spoon of ghee and roast cashew nuts in it, drain and keep aside.

Step 5: In the same ghee add the mashed tapioca, add milk dissolved kesar color to it and keep cooking by stirring constantly until it doesn't stick if held between fingers.

Step 6: Add sugar and cardamom powder and mix well; in few minutes the halwa turns glossy and glassy.

Step 7: Start adding ghee spoon by spoon, at a stage it stops absorbing ghee and then it is done.

Step 8: Mix the fried cashew nuts and turn off heat.

Step 9: Serve the melt-in mouth hot tapioca halwa.