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January 17, 2015

Balehannu Halwa (Coconut - Banana Halwa)

This is the final dish I made for Sankranthi. The actual festival was very low key, but we are heading to our cousin's place this weekend for some belated celebrations. My cousin puts up a beautiful golu and she also celebrates 'bhogi pallu' for the kids.
As I was thinking of what to bring, I found this interesting halwa with coconut and banana in 'Vegetarian Cookbook of India' cookbook by Mridula Baljekar. I had bananas that needed to be used up before leaving for the weekend, so this was a perfect recipe to make good use of them.
Balehannu Halwa (Coconut-Banana Halwa)
Also the recipe uses dry grated coconut cooked in some whole milk to give the texture of fresh coconut. Finding good fresh coconut is a little difficult here, but I always have dry grated coconut in my fridge, so this is a very convenient recipe to make for me.

Balehannu Halwa (Coconut-Banana Halwa)
The texture of the halwa is soft fudge-like, it does harden just a little bit when refrigerated but it's not as hard as a burfi. Halwa can be served in small bowls or can be cut into squares or diamonds and served as burfi.
Balehannu Halwa (Coconut-Banana Halwa)
Ingredients:
Dry grated Coconut - 1⅓cups*
Semi ripe Banana - 3~4 medium (1⅓cups mashed)
Whole Milk - 1cup*
Ghee/ Unsalted butter - 4~6tbsp
Sugar - 1cup
Cashews - ⅓cup, chopped
Raisins - 3tbsp
Ground Cardamom -1tsp
Ground Nutmeg - ½tsp
Pistachios - 2tbsp, toasted and finely chopped
Grated coconut - 2tbsp, toasted

*Note: Instead of the dry coconut and milk, use 1⅓cups of fresh grated coconut.

Method:
  • Grease a 8" square pan and keep ready.
  • Combine dry grated coconut and milk in a saucepan and cook on medium flame until all of the milk is absorbed. This takes about 5~7 minutes. Skip this step if using fresh grated coconut.
  • Melt ghee/ butter in a non-stick pan and add the coconut and mashed banana. Cook on low flame for 4~5 minutes.
  • Next add sugar, cashews and raisins. Increase the flame to medium and cook, stirring continuously, for 15~17 minutes or until the mixture gets to a soft fudge like consistency. Ghee starts to ooze out from the corners.
  • Transfer the mixture in the greased mixture and sprinkle the toasted coconut and pistachios. Press lightly onto the surface.
  • Let cool before cutting into squares or diamonds.
Balehannu Halwa (Coconut-Banana Halwa)



Linking this to Valli's 'Cooking from Cookbook ChallengeJanuary -- Week 3'.










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5 comments:

  1. That definitely looks lipsmacking! Banana and coconut would be an amazing combination....

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  2. That's an awesome halwa. My neighbour Aunty in bangAlore makes this sooo well.. Brings back so many memories , pavani :)) thank u ! Bookmarking this ..

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  3. Very interesting halwa pavani, the garnish on top makes it very tempting!

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  4. Very interesting halwa recipe! Looks really awesome!

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  5. The Banana halwas I have made were always the gooey types, never got a burfi texture..very nice and looks so rich..my sil always does the bhogi pallu for all the kids when we visit them during Sankranthi..its such an interesting part of our festival!

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