Dessert - 2 : Badam Cake (er.. halva)

This one was truly an exhilaration turning to a fiasco. But, the taste came out good and I could muster enough courage to actually gift it!

Recipe is from my mother-in-law and hers tastes heavenly!

Badam/Almonds - A fistful (Soak in warm water for 5mins - peel off skins - soak in warm milk for 15 mins)
Cashews - A fistful (Soak in warm milk for 15 mins)
Sugar - 3 cups
Milk - 3 cups
Ghee - 1 cup

1) Grind badam and cashews to a smooth paste with the milk in which they were soaked - like butter - it will come to about a cup. If it comes to 1 1/2 cups adjust milk and make it 4 cups in total.

2) Add sugar and start stirring keeping the kadai in medium to medium-high. Be careful of milk not getting burnt at the bottom.

3) Keep adding ghee little by little say every 5-10 mins. You could melt it a wee little bit. The stirring will go on for an hour.

4) When ghee leaves the sides and stirring becomes really difficult remove and pour to a greased tray.

5) When it gets cool and not too hard, cut into squares or diamonds.

Since I kept it in medium-low heat, I stirred it for 2 hours. This ghee leaving sides thing is tough to figure out - if I waited for the ghee to come out, I couldn't stir and was scared of the milk mixture getting burnt - so finally when K said it tastes good and it felt like a thick consistency I removed from fire. But, I should've waited for just 5 more mins. Mine became Badam halva instead of Badam cake even after refrigerating it!!! At least I know how to make Badam halva now!!! ;-)