Suji ka Halwa (, , ) or Mohan Bhog (, ) is a type of halvah in

South Asian cuisine South Asian cuisine includes the traditional cuisines from the modern-day South Asian republics of Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, also sometimes including the kingdom of Bhutan and the emirate of Afghanistan. Also som ...

made by toasting

semolina Semolina is the name given to roughly milled durum wheat mainly used in making pasta and sweet puddings. The term ''semolina'' is also used to designate coarse millings of other varieties of wheat, and sometimes other grains (such as rice or ma ...

(called suji, sooji, or rawa) in a fat like

ghee Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from South Asia. It is commonly used for cooking, as a Traditional medicine of India, traditional medicine, and for Hinduism, Hindu religious rituals. Description Ghee is typically prepared by ...

or oil, and adding a sweetener like sugar syrup, honey, or jaggery powder. It can be served for breakfast or as a dessert item. The basic recipe is made with just

, sugar or honey,

, and sometimes

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

. Variations on this include dried or fresh fruits, nuts, shredded coconut, and other toppings. Wheat flour is often used as a substitute if semolina is not available, but virtually any starch can be used to make Suji ka Halwa.

History

In Medieval Arabic cuisine, semolina halvah was made by roasting the milled wheat in butter and adding honey or sugar syrup to moisten the dessert. One recipe for ''hulwa a'jamiyya'' is made by boiling honey to create the syrup (diluted with water if needed) and garnished with pistachio and poppyseed. Milk can be added, as well as toppings like almonds, pistachios and pine nuts.

Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq () was an Arab author from Baghdad. He was the compiler of a tenth-century cookbook, the (, ''The Book of Dishes''). This is the earliest known Arabic cookbook. It contains over 600 recipes, divided into 132 chapters. The is the oldest survivi ...

's 10th-century cookbook includes varieties made with carrots, apples and dates. Earlier according to some scholars, this dish was introduced to India by the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

, but the theory was discredited as it was already listed as ''shali-anna'', present-day Kesari bat, in

Manasollasa The ' also known as ''Abhilashitartha Chintamani'', is an early 12th-century Sanskrit text composed by the Kalyani Chalukya king Someshvara III, who ruled in present-day Karnataka. It is an encyclopedic work covering topics such as polity, gove ...

, a 12th-century work by a South Indian Chalukyan king,

Someshvara III Someshvara III (; ) was a Western Chalukya king (also known as the Kalyani Chalukyas), the son and successor of Vikramaditya VI. He ascended the throne of the Western Chalukya Kingdom in 1126 CE, or 1127 CE. Someshvara III, the third king i ...

. In India, suji ka halwa is made from semolina, ghee, and sugar; cardamom and milk, almonds and cashew nuts are added. Suuji ka halwa2

Terminology

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

, the halwa made with semolina is called rawa sheera (रवा शीरा). When a similar halwa is prepared with wheat flour it's called ''gavhacya pithacha sheera'' (गव्हाच्या पीठाचा शीरा). In

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, it is ''sooji ka halwa'' (सूजी का हलवा). In South India, the dish is currently called Kesari Bat. It is called Sajjige in parts of

Tulunadu Tulu Nadu, or Tulunad, is a region and proposed state on the southwestern coast of India. The Tulu people, known as 'Tuluva' (pl. 'Tuluver') are speakers of Tulu, a Dravidian language, and are the predominant ethnic group of the region. Sou ...

. In

Telugu states The Telugu states are the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the Yanam enclave of Puducherry, where the plurality of the population belongs to the Telugu ethnic-group. When put together, the region is bordered by Maharashtra ...

Sooji ka halwa is made as a prashad on the occasion of fastings of

Ekadashi Ekadashi () is the eleventh lunar day (''tithi'') of the waxing (''Shukla Paksha, Shukla Pakṣa)'' and waning (''Kṛṣṇa Pakṣa)'' lunar cycles in a Hindu calendar, Vedic calendar month. Ekadashi is popularly observed within Vaishnavism one ...

and also made especially on the occasion of Satyanarayana Puja vratham to seek blessings from the lord. In Myanmar (Burma), the dish is called '' sanwin makin''. In the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

, it is known by

Indo-Caribbeans Indo-Caribbean or Indian-Caribbean people are people from the Caribbean who trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent. They are descendants of the Girmityas, Jahaji Indian indenture system, indentured laborers from British Raj, British India ...

as ''Mohan bhog'' or simply just as parsad, as it is a common sweet that

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

Indo-Caribbeans ''charhaway'' or offer as prasad in pujas.

References

{{Cuisine of India Vegetarian dishes of India Indian desserts South Indian cuisine Halva Indo-Caribbean cuisine

History

Terminology

See also

References