Traditional semolina halva
Semolina halva is a memory for me, a sweet reminder of my childhood, when I used to look forward to eating the hot halva from the pot! So making it became a habit over the years sometimes by making it simple with grandma's classic recipe and sometimes by adding various nuts and dried fruits.
Equipment
- 1 large and deep potfor roasting the semolina
- 1 small saucepanfor the syrup
Ingredients
- 1 cup olive or corn oil
- 2 cups semolina thick
- 2 1/2 cups Sugar
- 4 cups Water
- scraping lemon
- juice of a lemon
- 1 stick cinnamon
- almonds cleaned
Instructions
- 1. In a saucepan, add the water, sugar, lemon peel and cinnamon stick. 2. Once it comes to a boil and you are sure that the sugar has melted, turn off the heat. 3. In another pot, add the olive oil, semolina and lemon peel, toast it until it turns dark. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon. In the middle of the roasting process, add the almonds.4. Once the semolina is ready, remove the pot from the heat and pour the syrup with a ladle - after removing the cinnamon and lemon peel - being careful not to burn.5. Return the pot to the heat, lower the heat and allow the semolina to absorb all the syrup. Remove from the heat, remove the lemon rinds and cover with a clean cotton towel and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a mould and allow to cool. Invert onto a platter and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Notes
The traditional recipe is 1-2-3-4! 1 means 1 cup of olive or corn oil, 2 means 2 cups of semolina, 3 means 3 cups of sugar and 4 means 4 cups of water.
The traditional recipe is 1-2-3-4! What do these numbers mean? 1 means 1 cup of olive or corn oil, 2 means 2 cups of semolina, 3 means 3 cups of sugar and 4 means 4 cups of water.
Sugar
The standard recipe calls for 3 cups of sugar, but I reduced the amount to 2 cups so that the halvah would not be too sweet and I could add raisins or dried plums.
Olive oil
My grandmother and my mom used only olive oil. After much trial and error, I ended up using half a cup of olive oil and half a cup of corn oil. You can use a soft olive oil or corn oil or even half and half. Taste test because the type of oil you use affects the taste of the halvah.
Simigdali
As far as semolina is concerned, I always use coarse semolina. Fine semolina muddies the halvah.
Almonds
For nuts I use shelled almonds which I roast together with the semolina. It is possible to roast the almonds in a pan or in the oven.
Syrup
To the syrup I add the juice of ½ lemon and 1 cinnamon stick.
Roasting
I add a few lemon peels to the roasting, which can be a sign for beginners that the semolina is cooked. Once they start to brown our semolina is ready!
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