Talk:Halva

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[edit] Halva As Pudding Or Candy

I grew up eating middle-eastern style Halva, kind of like sesame-based fudge, somewhat fibrous, sweet and delicious. Usually sold in blocks (like fudge from a fudge store), but available in cans.

I also grew up eating a concoction that my mother cooked, under instruction from an Indian guy that boarded at our place. It was a kind of pudding or cereal, not unlike Italian polenta (in the mush version) but made with semolina, sweet and flavored with cardamom, with almonds and raisins. In consistency, quite like Cream of Wheat. In fact, the semolina used WAS Cream of Wheat

I now have an Indian colleague at work, who tells me that the latter dish is called "Halwa", and she makes it for breakfast all the time (also using Cream of Wheat). In her north-Indian version, it is a dryish mush (not too runny), but eaten with a spoon out of a bowl. Just like my mother's recipe.

If you look for recipes online, you will find that the Indian halwa or halva is almost always described as a kind of pudding or dry mush. Sometimes it will suggest that it can be left to cool and harden, and then can be sliced.

In these respects, the Indian halwa is really best thought of as a sweet analogue of polenta, which can be served as a kind of porridgy mush, or can be cooked longer, spread in a container, allowed to cool and solidify, and then grilled as a side dish or used as an alternate for pasta.

In fact, the middle-eastern and Indian "Halwa" foods seem to be fundamentally different, other than that they are both sweet. It does lead one to wonder if having the same name indicates a similar root, or if they are in fact independent food products.

I do not have time now to modify the main article, but will do so if no one else does.

(edit) Upon further investigation, I've found an excellent article on the many faces of halva. It links the semolina-based halvas of Greece and Turkey to the sesame-based halvas of the middle-east, to various versions in the gulf and the semolina puddings of India.

http://www.gourmed.gr/greek-food/show.asp?gid=9&nodeid=78&arid=3816

RonaldP


Attn Snoyes: The spelling halva is far more common (182k google hits) than halvah (32k). Mkweise 21:30, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Not on an English-only search though; 18k [1] vs 28k [2]. - Hephaestos|§ 05:39, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Just wanted to tell you about one possible source of confusion: A search on "halva" in any language will probably give you lots of sites talking about "half of something", as "halva" in (at least) Swedish means "half" or "half of". Actually, any short word is likely to occur in several languages with several meanings. I can think of innumerable examples but I don't want to bore you with a long list. :) Conversely, longer words (such as the rather long palindrome "saippuakauppias", soap seller, in Finnish)) might be less likely to occur in other languages and thus is less likely to show up unexpectedly in searches. Also, sometimes the language recognition used in search engines miss, especially on short pages. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.227.104.30 (talk • contribs) .
In every restaurant serving this item I've been to (mostly in Canada) I've always seen it as "halva". --Saforrest 03:22, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

A question... What do people think about the claim that most or all halvahs are based on semolina and sugar? Ive only ever seen ground sesame/tahini - based halvah. Ive seen this from egypt, israel, syria, and other middle eastern countries. Dface 19:05, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] halva mmmmm

i just tasted halva for the first time, wow how good is that it had cocoa in it.

There's religious significance to Halva (at least in Hinduism) - could someone write about it?

[edit] Recipies

The recepies seem to be a good source of interesting extra information in an encyclopedia article, but in general, the recepie belongs on wikibooks in the cookbook section.

[edit] Recipes - moved here from the article

[edit] Basic Indian halva

There are many kinds of halwas in India, but the most common are the carrot (gajar) halwa and the semolina (sooji or rava) halwa. Halwa is also made from atta flour. Here is the recipe for semolina halwa.

  • 7/8 cup milk
  • 7/8 cup water
  • 3/4 cup sugar (1 cup if you like it very sweet)
  • 1 cup semolina
  • 3/4 cup butter or ghee (US: 1 1/2 sticks)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
  • crushed toasted pistachios (optional)
  • sesame and honey to taste

Melt butter or ghee over medium heat, add semolina and stir-fry for about 10 minutes until nutty aroma develops. Meanwhile, bring milk, water and sugar to a boil in a separate pot, remove from heat and stir in spices. Turn off stove and pour liquid over fried semolina while stirring rapidly to contain sputtering.

Pour into forms or let cool in pot and cut into pieces later. Serve at room temperature. Optionally, garnish with crushed toasted pistachios.

[edit] Persian halva

Heat oil over medium heat, add semolina, stir-fry for about 10 minutes until nutty aroma develops and remove from heat. Dissolve sugar in boiling water, stir in rosewater and saffron and pour onto fried semolina while stirring rapidly. Garnish with crushed toasted almonds.

[edit] Greek halva

  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 2 cups semolina
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 4 cups water
  • 1/2 lemon, sliced
  • 1 stick cinnamon
  • chopped almonds
  • sesame seeds

Cook semolina and almonds in oil until golden. Meanwhile, heat the water and sugar just enough to completely dissolve the sugar and add lemon and cinnamon. Pour liquid onto semolina while stirring rapidly. Continue heating mixture until it thickens, then pour into cake form. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve at room temperature.

[edit] Jewish halvah

  • 400 g tahini
  • oil drained from tahini plus margarine to make 1 1/2 cups
  • 4 c semolina or wheat flour
  • 1 c honey
  • 1/2 c sesame seeds

Heat oil and margarine, stir in flour and cook over low flame while stirring constantly, until light brown. Then add tahini. Using a candy thermometer, heat honey to the soft ball stage (112 °C). Combine honey and sesame seeds with flour mixture and mix well. Pour onto greased form; cut as soon as solid enough.

[edit] About these rescipes

I don't think these rescipees are very accurate - at least not with regard to Jewish or Arab Halva. I think one thing that Israelis and Palestinians would agree on is that you don't put flour, semolina, or any sort of wheat in the halvah! In any case - this blongs on Wikicookbooks - not Wikipedia. Generic69 00:48, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Overhaul

I've just overhauled the article, as it had major inaccuracies.

There are two basic types of halva. They're both called "halva" and they're both sweet, but the similarities end there. I grew up eating different flavors and rescipes of Middle Eastern halvah among both Jews and Arabs. I've had hundreds of different brands and family rescipes, and every single one of them was made with tahini, and not one of them included wheat or flour of any kind.

When a Hare Krishna first gave me something that he called halva - apparently the Indian kind, I was shocked to see that it was not made of tahini and that it was made of cream of wheat and raisins and ghee! I don't think anyone from the middle east or anyone farmilar with middle eastern halva (and not indian cuisine) would recognize this stuff as halva. If I stired sugar and butter and raisins into my cream of wheat, that would not be called halva by any of the middle-eastern style halva makers I know!

At any rate, I've corrected the inaccuracies in the previous version. The article still needs some expansion and sourcing. Eventually it should proably be split into two different articles for these two completely different desserts that just happen to both be called halva. (Which probably just means "candy" in some language - etymology section would be nice too!) Generic69 01:12, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Deceased halva eating

I was not sure how to edit the following line. Does it mean that halva cooked in the name of a deceased person must be eaten or must not be eaten?

"It is usually cooked in the name of a newly deceased person and to restrain from eating this halva is often considered as a sin."

My apologies to the original contributor. Sjschen 21:20, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] See Also: Turkish Delight?

I see no connection to Turkish Delight except country of origin. Is this really a useful cross-reference? --Clconway 08:43, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

I put it there because Turkish delight is another type of flour+sugar+(rose)water based dessert. Then again, maybe it's not a really good "see also" item? Sjschen 13:13, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

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