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15 recipes

Chana dal halwa

At Punjabi weddings in Lahore and Faisalabad in the cold months, the dessert table often carries a big tray of chana dal halwa beside the gajar halwa. Soaked split chickpeas are ground and fried slowly in ghee until they smell of roasted nuts and turn deep golden, then cooked with milk, sugar and cardamom into a rich, grainy halwa that keeps for days. It takes patience and a strong arm. Chef's tip: keep the heat low and scrape the bottom constantly; the dal catches fast once it starts to brown.

90 minPakistaniIndian SweetsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pheni (layered fried vermicelli nests in sweet milk)

In Lahore and Karachi during Ramadan, sweet shops stack golden nests of pheni in towers, and families buy them to eat at sehri, the meal before dawn. The fine, brittle strands are crumbled into a bowl and drenched with hot sweetened milk, which softens them in a minute into something like a silky vermicelli pudding; it keeps you full through the fasting day. Shop pheni is pulled into hair-thin threads by skilled hands, so at home this recipe uses the layered method: thin sheets of dough are brushed with a ghee and rice-flour paste, rolled and sliced, and the paste makes the layers fan out into fine flaky rings when fried. They are crisp, buttery and delicate. It is naturally egg-free: the dough is just flour, ghee and water, and the rice-flour paste keeps the layers separate. Chef's tip: fry the nests in oil that is only moderately hot, about 160°C; oil that is too hot is the common mistake that browns the outside while the inner layers stay soft and doughy.

90 minPakistaniIndian Sweets
by KrazyBadal 0 views

BalushahiFried pastry in cardamom syrup

Look in any mithai box carried to a Pakistani engagement or handed round when exam results come out, and balushahi will be there: a squat, doughnut-like round with a dimple in the centre, layered and flaky inside, glazed with a thin, crackly coat of syrup. It is made from a short dough of flour, ghee and yogurt that is barely kneaded, fried very slowly so it cooks through and turns crisp in tiny layers, then dipped in a thick cardamom syrup. Shops in Lahore's Walled City and in Rawalpindi's Raja Bazaar sell it by the kilo, and at home it is a sweet for Eid and winter tea. A common mistake is kneading the dough smooth like a chapati, which develops gluten and makes the balushahi hard instead of flaky. Chef's tip: fry them in ghee that is only just warm, so they float up slowly over several minutes; that slow start is what opens the layers.

65 minPakistaniIndian Sweets
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Chana daal halwaSplit chickpea halwa

This is the halwa of family gatherings on cold winter evenings and of Shab-e-Barat, when households in Karachi, Lahore and Multan cook trays of sweets to share with neighbours, and among them all it is the one that rewards hard work most. Split chickpeas are soaked overnight, simmered soft in milk, ground to a paste and then fried in ghee for the best part of an hour, until the raw beany taste is replaced by a deep, toasty, almost caramel flavour and a soft, slightly grainy texture. Cardamom, a little khoya and plenty of almonds and pistachios finish it, and it is eaten warm, or pressed into a tray and cut. It keeps well, so many families make a large pot. The fault that most often spoils it is adding the sugar before the dal paste has been fried long enough, which leaves it pasty and heavy. Chef's tip: stir until the paste turns golden and smells like roasted nuts and the ghee begins to seep out again, and only then add the sugar.

90 minPakistaniIndian SweetsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

DhodhaMilk, wheat and ghee fudge

Every bus that stops in Khushab, on the road between Sargodha and the Salt Range, is met by boys carrying boxes of dhodha, the town's famous sweet and a standard gift for anyone visiting family in Punjab. It is lighter in colour and softer than habshi halwa, a moist, crumbly fudge of slowly reduced milk, a little wheat flour, ghee and sugar, packed with almonds, pistachios and walnuts and pressed into slabs about two fingers thick. The flavour is milky and nutty with a gentle caramel note, and it is sliced and eaten with tea, especially in the cold months. Where people slip up is under-reducing the milk, so the dhodha never firms and stays soft like a halwa. Chef's tip: keep stirring after you add the sugar until the mass leaves the sides of the pan cleanly and holds a ridge when you draw the spoon through it, then press it into the tin while still warm.

180 minPakistaniIndian Sweets
by KrazyBadal 0 views

GajakSesame jaggery brittle

Winter in Punjab has a sound, and it is the snap of gajak: thin, glossy sheets of toasted sesame bound in jaggery, sold from piled trays outside the sweet shops of Multan, Gujranwala and Lahore from the first cold week of December. It is nutty, crunchy and toffee-sweet, with the earthy depth of gur, and families keep a tin of it beside the heater to nibble after dinner with green tea or to share with visitors. The commercial kind is hammered and pulled into flaky layers, but the home version poured thin and rolled flat is what most households make. The pitfall is pulling the jaggery off the heat too early, which gives a brittle that turns chewy and sticky after a day. Chef's tip: test the syrup by dropping a little into cold water; it must snap cleanly at once, and that hard-crack stage is reached quickly, so have the sesame warm and ready. Take care: the syrup is far hotter than boiling water.

40 minPakistaniIndian SweetsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Habshi halwaSprouted wheat and milk halwa

Few sweets demand as much patience as habshi halwa, the near-black, glossy, chewy slab that the old halwais of Lahore's Anarkali and Ichhra stir for most of a day in wide brass karahis. Full-cream milk is reduced with sprouted wheat flour (samnak) until the sugars caramelise and the mixture darkens from cream to coffee to deep mahogany, then ghee is worked in until it leaks out shining at the edges. The taste is of toffee, malt and toasted nuts, rich enough that a small square with tea is plenty, and it is a winter gift sent to relatives and given at weddings. Sprouting wheat takes two or three days, so plan ahead, or use the flour sold as samnak in South Asian shops. The mistake that spoils most batches is turning up the heat to save time, which scorches the milk on the base and makes the halwa bitter instead of deeply caramelised. Chef's tip: caramelise a third of the sugar separately to a dark amber before adding it, which gives the colour without hours of extra stirring.

240 minPakistaniIndian Sweets
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Karachi halwaCornflour halwa

Glassy, jewel-bright and chewy like a Turkish delight with more bite, Karachi halwa is the sweet that the city's mithai shops on Saddar and Tariq Road stack in orange, green and red slabs studded with cashews and melon seeds, and it travels well as a gift to family abroad. It is made from cornflour cooked with sugar syrup and lemon until it turns clear, then fed with ghee spoon by spoon until it shines and pulls away from the pan in one elastic mass. Across the border it is called Bombay halwa, and in Pakistan it is a staple for weddings, Eid and Diwali sweet boxes from the Hindu shops of Sindh. Lots of cooks lose their nerve and stop before the halwa has absorbed all the ghee and turned translucent, and it sets cloudy and sticky. Chef's tip: work the halwa with a flat wooden spatula and add the ghee only when the previous spoonful has disappeared; when the ghee starts to leak back out, it is done.

60 minPakistaniIndian SweetsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Khajoor ka halwaDate halwa

The oasis towns of Turbat and Panjgur in Makran grow some of Pakistan's finest dates, the soft, honeyed Begum Jangi and Muzawati among them, and after the late-summer harvest households turn the surplus into this rich, fudgy halwa. Dates are softened in warm milk, mashed and cooked down slowly in ghee until the mixture is dark and glossy and comes away from the pan, then finished with almonds, walnuts and cardamom. It needs little or no added sugar, and it is served in small portions at Eid, to new mothers and to guests with green tea. Using dry, hard dates without soaking is where it goes wrong, leaving the halwa lumpy and leathery. Chef's tip: choose soft, moist dates and blend them only briefly after soaking, so a few small pieces remain for texture.

40 minPakistaniIndian SweetsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Lauki ka halwaBottle gourd halwa

Pale jade-green and soft, with tiny strands of gourd suspended in a creamy, cardamom-scented reduction, lauki ka halwa is what many Pakistani households make in summer, when the vines are heavy and bottle gourd is the cheapest thing in the sabzi mandi. It is lighter than carrot or dal halwa, gently sweet, and tastes of milk and ghee more than vegetable; families in Hyderabad, Karachi and Faisalabad serve it chilled on hot evenings or warm after a meal, and it is a favourite sweet for Ramadan iftar tables. The usual let-down is not squeezing out the gourd's water before cooking, which dilutes the milk and leaves the halwa thin and bland. Chef's tip: use a young, tender lauki with soft seeds, cook the grated gourd in ghee first until it softens, then add the milk, and stop when the halwa is moist and creamy, not dry, as it firms up as it cools.

60 minPakistaniIndian SweetsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

PanjiriRoasted wheat flour with nuts

When a baby is born in a Punjabi home, one of the first things the grandmothers do is roast a huge karahi of panjiri, loose, golden crumbs of wholewheat flour fried in ghee and mixed with sugar, nuts, seeds, makhana and crunchy fried gond, meant to warm and strengthen the new mother through the forty days after birth. The same mixture is made in every household from Sialkot to Bahawalpur when the winter cold sets in, eaten by the spoonful with hot milk at night or sprinkled over a bowl of milk for breakfast. It tastes nutty, toasty and lightly sweet, with crunch in every mouthful. The usual way it goes wrong is roasting the flour too fast on a high flame, which browns the outside while the inside still tastes raw. Chef's tip: roast the flour slowly until it is the colour of pale biscuit and smells like baking cookies, and add the sugar only once the flour has cooled, so it stays crunchy rather than melting.

40 minPakistaniIndian Sweets
by KrazyBadal 0 views

RewriSesame-coated sugar sweets

Children in Lahore grow up buying rewri by the paper cone from the old shops in Rang Mahal and from the carts at the Basant and Mela Chiraghan fairs, little white coins of hard candy crusted with toasted sesame that crack between the teeth and then melt slowly. The sugar is boiled to hard crack, pulled on a greased hook or with oiled hands until it turns opaque and white, flavoured with kewra, then cut into tiny pieces and rolled in sesame. It is a winter sweet, eaten with peanuts and gajak around the fire and handed out at shrines. The step that trips people up is pulling the sugar when it is either too hot to handle or already cooling into glass, so time it carefully and work fast. Chef's tip: wear clean, thick rubber gloves rubbed with ghee for pulling, and keep the candy near a warm oven door so it stays pliable while you cut. Take care: boiled sugar causes serious burns, so keep children away while it is hot.

40 minPakistaniIndian SweetsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Multani sohan halwaSprouted wheat and milk halwa

Packed in round tins and carried home from Multan's Hussain Agahi bazaar as a gift, sohan halwa is the sweet the City of Saints is known for across Pakistan, and families in Lahore and Karachi still wait for relatives to bring a box back after a visit. It is dark, dense and chewy, with a deep caramel flavour from milk and sugar cooked for hours, and its texture comes from samnak, a flour made from sprouted wheat, cooked in ghee until the fat seeps out around the edges. Almonds and pistachios are pressed into the top, and it is eaten in small squares with tea, especially in winter. Giving up too early is the classic error; pale, soft halwa has not been cooked long enough to caramelise and set. Chef's tip: stir constantly once the flour goes in and take your time; the mixture is ready when it turns a deep brown, leaves the pan in a single mass and the ghee pools freely. Take care, as the mixture is very hot and sticky.

165 minPakistaniIndian Sweets
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Anday ka halwaEgg halwa

Sweet, golden and grainy like a rich crumble, egg halwa is the quick showpiece of Hyderabadi and Karachi home kitchens, made when unexpected guests arrive or for a winter Sunday, and it fills the house with the smell of ghee and cardamom. Eggs are beaten with milk, sugar and milk powder, then stirred in ghee until the custard sets, breaks and finally fries into soft, sandy granules that cling together like khoya; there is no eggy taste once it is properly cooked. It is served warm in small bowls, topped with almonds and pistachios, sometimes with a few saffron threads. The commonest failure is stopping too soon, when the halwa is still wet and scrambled-egg-like, rather than cooking on until it turns granular and golden and the ghee separates. Chef's tip: strain the beaten egg mixture through a sieve before cooking, which removes the stringy whites and gives a smooth, even grain.

50 minPakistaniIndian SweetsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sheer khurmaVermicelli milk pudding

Sheer khurma means milk with dates in Persian, and in Pakistan it is the taste of Eid ul-Fitr morning: after the Eid prayer, families come home and every visitor who knocks that day is handed a small bowl. It is richer and nuttier than everyday seviyan: whole milk is boiled down until creamy, fine vermicelli fried golden in ghee goes in late, and it is loaded with soaked dried dates (chhuhare), almonds, pistachios, cashews, raisins and charoli seeds, scented with cardamom. It is served warm in the morning and thickens to a spoonable pudding when cold. The mistake most people make is adding the vermicelli too early or using too much; it keeps drinking milk as it cools and turns stodgy. Chef's tip: soak the dried dates overnight and slice them thinly; fresh soft dates melt away, but soaked chhuhare stay chewy and sweet in every spoonful.

40 minPakistaniIndian Sweets
by KrazyBadal 0 views