Tirunelveli halwa – How to make perfect authentic Tirunelveli wheat halwa

Tirunelveli halwa is very popular sweet from southern region of Tamilnadu. It is too sweet with full of ghee. That makes it a perfect dessert.

This is one sweet for which I can’t resist myself from eating when it is in front of me. The very thought of halwa makes me drool for it.

Anyone tastes it once, will remember it’s taste forever.

Tirunelveli iruttu kadai halwa is very famous around the region. After visiting Tirunelveli, coming back without halwa is rare.

This sweet brings back so much of memories from the past.

I had my friends from college who were in and around Tirunelveli. They used to bring halwa after the weekend break while returning to hostel. My lovely roommate used to bring Tirunelveli wheat halwa and Muscoth halwa (This I keep in my list for trying on another occassion).

My mom prepared Tirunelveli halwa almost 25 yrs before, at home from the scratch, in the same traditional way. We were so excited on that day. We used to grind in the traditional Ural those days. I was sitting next to her seeing how she took out the milk from wheat and made halwa.

These memories are still fresh. See, this is what a food can do. It brings back all olden memories related to it.

How many trials for Perfect Tirunelveli Wheat Halwa??

Generally this is considered tough recipe to make perfect at first attempt. It requires lot of patience and tips of what can go wrong to avoid those mistakes. I succeeded in making the perfect halwa in my 2nd attempt. You can follow this recipe and check out the tips to make perfect halwa in 1st attempt itself. I assure that you can never go wrong with this.

This is time consuming task, but totally worth when you have the Tirunelveli style wheat halwa in your hand. It just melts in the mouth.

When is halwa prepared or served?

Like any other sweet, halwa is prepared and served for any good occassion or during festivals. As Diwali is nearing now, I thought of trying some sweet and this came first in my mind.
So here we are with halwa recipe, video and with step-by-step pictures.

Traditionally, Tirunelveli halwa doesn’t have fried nut earlier. But the last time when I bought, I remember having some cashews. Here I added some cashews for the nutty flavor.

We can make different variety of halwa. Check out my other halwa recipes here;

1. Pumpkin halwa
2. Garlic halwa / Poondu kali
3. Fenugreek halwa / Vendhaya kali

Let us see the Tirunelveli special wheat halwa recipe here.

Step-by-step Pictures

Soak wheat and Extract milk

• Soak the wheat for about 8 hours in water. After 8 hours, Wheat doubles in quantity.
• Drain the excess water. Grind the wheat in mixer grinder by adding some water.
  

• Wheat milk comes out. Filter the wheat milk using a strainer or muslin cloth and discard the wheat fiber.
  

Resting the milk

• Leave the wheat milk undisturbed for about 3 hours. The water comes up. As we are soaking for 8 hrs, the wheat will have little fermentation smell. So, drain the clear water from it.
  

Cooking halwa

• Add 3 cups of fresh water. For 1 cup wheat, wheat milk and water togather should come to 1 ltr.
  
• In a small pan, add 1 tbsp of ghee and melt, then add cashew pieces and fry cashews until it turns to golden brown colour and keep aside.
  
• If you are using brown sugar, no need to caramelize the sugar for bringing the amber colour to halwa. You can add all sugar along with it and mix.
• If you use white sugar, caramelize the sugar. In the same small pan, add 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water and bring to boil. Keep stirring until it changes to brown colour. Turn off the heat and keep aside.
• Heat the kadai and start adding wheat milk mix little by little. 1/2 cup each time would be correct. Keep the stove in medium low flame and keep stirring. It starts thickening within a minute.
  
• Add the another 1/2 cup wheat milk and keep stiring. Repeat this process until you complete 2 cups of wheat milk. Then add 1 tbsp ghee and mix.
• Repeat the process of adding wheat milk and stirring until you finish all the wheat milk. In between add 1 tbsp of ghee.
• Once you added all the wheat milk mix, it starts thickening. From now onwards, keep the stove in low flame only. Now add 1 tbsp of ghee each time and mix well until it gets absorbed.
  

• It takes about 1 hour time to complete cooking. Until then keep adding 1 tbsp ghee every 5 minutes once and keep stirring.
• Once it is cooked well, the ghee starts seperating and oozes out in the sides.
  
• Now add the fried cashews along with ghee used to fry. Mix well for 2 minutes and turn off the heat.Tirunelveli Halwa is ready.
  

All these steps and tips would surely help you make our favorite Tirunelveli wheat halwa easily. If you make it this way, send me your feedback here.