Monday, August 22, 2011

Godhumai Jira / Instant Wheat Flour Halwa








I

mastered 'Godhumai Jira' from 'Ammayi, my husband's maternal Grandma. Years back, as a newly wed she amazed me each time she made this sweet in a jiffy for the unexpected guests who would simply admire the heavenly taste!

By typing 'mastered' I mean it!  Many of my husband's relatives learnt the recipe from 'Ammayi' but were not able to come out like hers when they tried. I admit I'd failed at least half a dozen times ;) ;thanks to the inspiring spider and the king story which never let me surrender and propelled me for years until I made it perfect!

'Ammayi', on the other hand, claims to have learnt the recipe verbally from one of her family friends. Trying to source out the cuisine I had pestered her with all sorts of queries pertaining region, whether she was a Gujarathi, Marathi, Rajasthani etc. She continues to say "Vadakkathi" meaning North Indian!

So invariably this belongs to North India. Friends, any idea to which state this belongs, please? :)

My in-laws had named this 'Godhumai Jira 'which again confuses me, especially with the latter part. Why 'Jira'?
The speciality of this sweet is that it calls for just 4 ingredients, wheat flour, ghee, sugar and water with no added colours, flavours, dried fruits or nuts! Still it tastes Heaven!

I had made up my mind, ever posted, I should make it a real elaborate step by step post to make it as easiest as possible for my readers, It seems to be elaborate, take my words, the time span between the image no:1, just below  and image no:19 with the final product is not more than 5 minutes!!


Ingredients for Wheat flour Halwa

Whole wheat flour/ Atta - 1/2 cup
Ghee- 1/2 cup (same amount as wheat flour...never compromise the quantity)
Sugar - 3/4 cup (slightly lesser than two parts of flour)
Water - 1 cup + about 1/4 cup ( 2 1/4 parts of flour)

Clear?? :)

So here we go.....you can never flaw with these anyway :)



Heat ghee / clarified butter in one of your non stick pans.
I used fresh homemade cow's ghee, amma had sent over :)    ( Thanx girls, for tolerating a bit of bragging :))




I used a shallow nonstick pan and lesser ratio of ingredients for the pictorial and please go ahead with your wider deeper pans. For beginners I strongly suggest to start with minimum quantity, say, 1/4 cup of wheat flour and 1/4 cup of ghee like I am doing here!




Add wheat flour to the heated ghee




Ah! while you place the pan to heat ghee, place the pan of water (flour : water =  1 : 2 1/4) simultaneously on the adjacent stove over medium flame.




Blend ghee + atta well. It should be watery and not thicker than you see here. This is important!




Keeping flame to minimum, stir the mixture continuously.




You can see the colour changing while the flour gets cooked in ghee




This will take 2-3 minutes (if you have used 1/4 cup of flour and ghee) and you see the flour attaining a deeper brown hue with the distinct aroma of wheat + ghee all around you!




The water must have reached the rolling boiling stage now. Make sure you don't let it boil and evaporate as we might mess up with the ratio

Ah! seems now I am burning the mix!!




Yes, this is where you are supposed to reach with the wheat and ghee part. I removed it from fire and brought it under daylight to show you the actual colour.




You don't have to put off the stove as I did and can dump sugar..




..followed by the boiling water. Be careful as you see the mix rising up a bit with a hissing sound and settling down the next second, since you are using the boiling water. Be careful with the very hot water too.

 This was the moment I was desperately in need of a third hand and envied our Hindu Gods.... was literally struggling with hot water, spatula and the camera set to auto shoot..



This stage reaches after 2 seconds from the previous. I had to put off the stove after my struggle to click a decent picture :)




The same stage for a closer shot. While you mix, ensure there are no lumps formed. It is safer to put off  fire for a few seconds until you blend the mixture well.




Keep the flame low and stir.




Aw! Seems I had both the hood lamps on and the color is confusing!




Yes! Put off one and note the consistency and the colour. This stage is reached within a minute after you mix the flour, ghee and boiling water.




Within seconds you can see the whole thing forming into a smooth glossy mass, leaving sides of the pan with a wonderful aroma. Interesting, na? :)




Ah! there you go! heave a deep sigh of relief, you've made it!
Put off fire. Transfer to another bowl and leave it cool a bit. The halwa will be really hot!



Enjoy the warm bowl of sweet. There are no added colours . No added flavours either!







Ammayi, the greatest cook of our family, is almost bedridden with limited mobility. She can no more amaze her guests with godumai jira but still loves to have it in spite of her ever shooting blood-sugar levels :)


Updated :

Hi Bharathy, this is what we Maharashtrians call Kankecha Shira meaning Wheat flour shira, probably "jira" is a mispronounced "shira". It is a rural specialty rustled up for surprise visitors. Me having grown up in Mumbai had never tasted this but a friend from Nagpur made it for me and said it is very common in the countryside. The golden roasting in ghee is the key to a good shira.

Thank you Anjali for your valuable info!


According to Kool Kitchen, Wheat Flour Sheera ( कणकेचा शीरा) is a traditional Maharashtrian sweet, usually served as ‘Prasad’ for Satyanarayanpuja.


41 comments:

  1. Such a beautiful pictorial that I could not take off my eyes from even a single step...halwa looks damn tempting!!

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  2. I totally agree with prathy, all the pics are gorgeous! great effort bharathy :)

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  3. Awesome pics and nice stepwise too...Sounds and looks great...yummy clicks too

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  4. My mom do the same and we call it atte ka halwa ...though little less of ghee but exactly same ingredients ...I love this ...you have done it so perfect as you said ...fab pics

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  5. Amazing pictures,thats ur specialityyyyyy.Ur 14 and 15 th clicks were simply excellent,that shows ur perfectness.After seeing ur photos my child[just standing behind me and disturbs me a lott]insisting me to do now itself.Praying to god to attain atleast half of ur perfect iam moving....

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  6. We too make the same but we call it Gorhumai Maavu halwa. Nice step wise clicks Bharathy. You just made me salivate with every click.

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  7. So decadent...I wish I could have that now!Looks so fabulous

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  8. A perfect feast to the eyes and the stomach. Lovely clicks, u have tempted me too much :):)

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  9. Hi Bharathy, this is what we Maharashtrians call Kankecha Shira meaning Wheat flour shira, probably "jira" is a mispronounced "shira". It is a rural specialty rustled up for surprise visitors. Me having grown up in Mumbai had never tasted this but a friend from Nagpur made it for me and said it is very common in the countryside. The golden roasting in ghee is the key to a good shira.

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  10. Bharathy that was quick :)! You surely seem to be in love with this sweet and I can sense the excitement :D

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  11. wow...this is what i want to make a long back...One of my north indian friend, made this during puja in her house...nearly five yrs back...But still now remember the taste of it...Sure don't want to miss it again..

    Sure try it...you made the recipe great ...and thanks for the pics...

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  12. Looks amazing and so well described with perfect pictorial steps.

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  13. Great post and a super sweet dish which I love, but never made(ahem, successfully that is;-)! The step-by-step is really helpful, kudos on doing it single-handedly, so well and with all that humor thrown in!!

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  14. Gorgeous step by step pics! Can imagine the kind of struggle you must have had. Will surely try this sometime!

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  15. This sweet is made in all the northern states starting with Maharashtra, MP, UP, Delhi and Punjab, with slight variations. It is made as a snack, breakfast dish in many places including MP. Jira as Anjali has pointed out must be the variation of Shira. So probably Ammayi got her original recipe from a Maharashtrian :)

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  16. Such an awesome clicks well explained no one can wrong with this explanation..i hv to def try this..

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  17. Looks fudgy & so yummy!!!!! Very well explained...Wanna try this out now..:)
    Prathima Rao
    Prats Corner

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  18. fantastic clicks and deliicous sweet . cant take my eyes

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  19. Very well explained. Love its natural color. a must try halwa :)

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  20. Awesome.. Its a good thing you are posting sweets before the row of festivals begin. This is featuring in one of the festival days...
    The pictures are absolutely perfect and I just want to eat the halwa out of that royal serving. Slurrpppp!!!

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  21. Too much.. too much for me. I am super tempted right now. I used to like godumai halwa a lot and this variation makes me drool too much :)

    Loving the clicks so so so so much too. What a perfection these days. Soooper :) Love you :)

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  22. Hi.. Lovely recipe, I am going to try it soon. Jira as its called in colloquial Tamil or as I know it from my chidhood days could refer to the mixture of sugar in hot water (or sugary water), like what we make for Rasagullas or Gulab Jamuns. Great! Keep up the good work!

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  23. nicely explained and love it!

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  24. My mom makes the same prasadam for Sathya Narayan pooja every pournami. In fact your first picture of the Sheera in the bowl brought back such fond memories. Thank you.

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  25. Perfect feat to the eyes...I almost felt the sweet in my mouth, as I read through along with the pictures. My husband's Ammamma makes this.

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  26. Thanks for sharing wonderful recipe with us..I made this and it came out very good...

    I had posted it in my blog. Visit http://geethaachalrecipe.blogspot.com/2011/08/godhumai-jira-wheat-flour-halwa.html

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  27. Simply amazing and awesome clicks. Lip smacking and mouth watering sweet.

    Small world as we came to know about you from Pongal Festival posting of our in-law's hometown :)

    Glad that we finally know each other now :)

    Humble follower,
    Soundspicy

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  28. I love reading your stories just as much as the recipes. Honestly I wanted some right now:(. Needless to say the pics were awesome. You make it easy for the readers to follow the recipe. Love the fact that there is no color. Best wishes to ammayai. She must be proud of you.

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  29. Wow Super tempting halwa Bharathy..I have tasted it but never attempted though.. I have bookmarked this :) By the way pictures are so sooooooooo good . Love it totally :)

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  31. This looks awesome. Love the way you have taken the pictures...Mouthwatering!

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  32. Your ammayi was right: this is a north Indian recipe! It is a recipe from punjab and is also known as 'Seera.' and that I think got modified to 'jira.' This is made on auspicious occasions especially for 'paaths' i.e. reading of the holy book of the Sikhs or a havan or pooja!

    Thank you for posting along with pictures the various recipes.

    Am going through them....

    With warm regards,

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  33. http://priyaraosrecipes.blogspot.in/2011/11/godhumai-jira.html - Guess its there word by word!

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  34. Your recipe has been plagiarized by this website: http://simpleindiancook.blogspot.in/2012/06/godhumai-jira.html

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  35. Amazing...i did tried today,it came out excellent. I followed same measurement,except reduced littlebit sugar thats it...

    Thanks a lot...very quick and yummy dessert...

    Wonderful step by step snap..made things very easy for me...

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  36. i tried today. Came out well. Thank you for this easy sweet..

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  37. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    Replies
    1. Hi - Thanks for your recipe. Tried it today, and it has come out well. Just a query, there is excessive ghee which tries to separate out from the sweet at the final stage, is that ok? Is this got something to do with the atta used in the sweet.

      Thanks for your suggestions.

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    2. Hi Ivy,

      Glad that you tried it and came out well.
      Separation of ghee is a good sign, of making the sweet perfect.If the flour is not fried perfect(the whole secret lies here)not even a drop of it would separate! This traditional/acquired recipe calls for equal amt of flour and ghee which would be a bit unacceptable for cooks like you and me esp when the extra ghee tops up..

      You can try to reduce the exact amount of ghee which lies extra next time while frying flour. If you cut down much ( more than 2 tbsps ghee for 1/2 cup flour )the frying won't get perfect too. I am saying this out of my trials. Anyway you can try that..see to it you have a watery consistency of the mix while frying which ensures even browning of the flour.This is the most imp part which you got right earlier!

      Another option is to drain the ghee.I resort to this method. There wont be any unwanted flavours in that ghee and you can very well reuse it if kept separate.Also, there wont be more than 2 tsps of extra ghee, in the above recipe measurements, I presume, again.

      How did you like the taste? never mentioned abt it.. :)

      Thanks again, Ivy :)

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  38. Its almost like Thirunelvei halwa! :) Enjoyed the post..looks like after adding the sugar n hot water, the cook should be under fire! LOL!! I definitely wanna try, but not at this moment! ;)
    Tempting clicks Bharathy!

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