Badam Halwa / Almond Pudding

Sometime back, one of my friends had a birthday party at her place. She had made her husband drive an hour to get few dishes from a known restaurant. I told her it is not worth driving so much until she uncovered the Badam Halwa from that restaurant. I tasted one spoon and declared it was worth it to drive that distance for that halwa. But, what I didn't like was the quarter inch ghee floating on the top. Here is a version that doesn't have too much ghee but tastes delicious. If you are one of those lucky skinny ones who can eat like a horse and not gain weight, add 1/4 - 1/3 cup more ghee.

One Year Back - Peanut Butter Cookies
Two Years Back - Avocado Brioche, Roasted Banana Ice cream
Three Years Back - Deep fried cracker ( Nippattu )Ingredients:
Almonds (whole) - 2 1/2 cups (You could already blanched almonds)
Milk - 3/4 - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups (You can use 2 1/2 cups but I don't like overly sweet dessert)
Ghee - 1/2 cup (You could use up to 3/4 cup)
Saffron - few strands
Food coloring - few drops (optional. Use yellow or orange)
Cardamom - 10 powdered

Method:
Blanch the almonds: (If using blanched almonds, skip this step)
Take all the almonds in a saucepan. Cover with enough water so that water is an inch above the almonds. Place it on the heat and let the water come to a boil. Let it boil for 3 minutes or so. Turn off the heat and drain all the hot water and add cold water to the same pan. Let it sit for 5 - 10 minutes. You will see the skin wrinkle up and it will be very easy to peel just by pressing the almond between the fingers. Drain the almonds in a colander.

Making the Halwa:
Take the blanched almonds in a blender and add little by little milk to make a coarse paste. Try to get the coarse cornmeal or Rawa kind of a texture. Set aside.
In a nonstick pan, heat 2 TBSP of ghee. To this, add the ground paste and keep on stirring to prevent sticking and burning. Add sugar, saffron and mix well. It will splatter every where so keep the heat medium and keep on stirring continuously. After about 10 minutes, you can add the rest of the ghee and continue stirring. When the halwa is done, it will be the consistency of the thick pudding and the mixture will ooze out ghee. It also will stop sticking to the pan. Add Cardamom powder and few drops of food coloring if desired and mix well and turn off. Transfer the contents to a different dish to cool. Serve at room temperature. You could mold them into different shapes if you have the cute molds. Or spread between two sheets of wax paper and cut them into desired shape. They won't be hard as burfi. They are more like soft peda consistency.

Notes:
I did initial cooking in the microwave. Take 2 TBSP of ghee, ground paste and sugar and mix well in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high heat for 20 minutes in the interval of 5 minutes. Then transfer the contents to the non stick pan and proceed with the stove top method.

Enjoy.