CHAL PATALI GURER HALWA

Does not look like a D-Day share... right? Who said I celebrate?... or may be it will be my 48th celebration .... haha! Each day is a celebration for me if only you let me do what I wish to... this trait is not that old a development... else our mother would have faced serious trouble bringing me up. I see the brother whose every step is a dictate of his mother and think I have got out of it long back.... courtesy... the husband... The fiercely independent human who had the ability to make queries to the doctors while he was almost @ his "..... bed"... a couple of times! Lying alone at a hospital in Rotterdam with his right palm cut into half almost, he had the strength to call his office and instruct not to inform his family and wife who may collapse. I went to the airport to receive an untimely visitor. I have to keep faith in the Almighty who saved me from all the storms I have faced till date, my men may not! However, I do not feel like creating a twosome post as I did some 3-4 years back.... and write absurd notes ... "I have never fancied or looked at any other girl, the entirety of my soul belongs to you... I have known that a rose is worth gifting only when my parents arranged my meeting with you"... and vice versa! I turn to the husband and say "yaar Boss... humlog to badmash thairiley... kitne ko ankh marte firte hai".... 

However, I quite enjoy when dear people share such silly posts ... do but be careful about the captions... it need not sound too absurd.... human mind is enveloped with layers of emotions... one need not hide it. The boss of this house prefers to avoid such special occasions saying that it all started as "Archies' Gimmick" to sell their Greetings Cards! I do not mind, I just  enjoy my stay on earth my way.... look at what I had for lunch yesterday... my favourite hot & spicy noodles which has a poached egg, minced pork, fried ikanbilis, sautéed greens in it.... too much of a love.... The thing is that Ipsita too gifted me the same book that I got from India.... okay, keeping the gift and may give away mine to people who love reading... a Piali Maitra or Namrata Majumder may be.... if only I like the read!

Love is also cooking a dessert as yummy as this CHAL PATALI GURER HALWA for the family, even if I do not get a solitaire finger ring on special days... Actually, until our last day we do not get to know ourselves in totality... who knows I want a gift at all or not and where I am when... may be I am busy digging the rubbles of memory... buying Archies' Cards from "kakur dokan"... despatching either from the Seth Bagan Post Office or from the Ghugudanga Post Office on days when I headed to Chandrayee's home for an Adda session in front of their's with T, MR, Sarajit, Joy, Sukanta, Ajay... at times Tukul and Shiddharta would just cross by! Good old days! Anyway, I was not hopeful about the future of the despatched cards... I had the feeling that they lay ash--tray! However, I have kept the cards I gifted to bossy and a total of 25 letters he wrote to me from different voyages at our present Kolkata home... They were mostly 3-4 liners, only one was of 20 pages ..... yes, he wrote that when I told him how to convince my family of bankers who are not familiar with a sailor's life? You know your search ends at a point when someone makes you feel too important .... says "I want you!".... but let your feelings flow to the direction it desires to, if you are like me... you will not be calculative with them ....

The CHAL PATALI GURER HALWA was not a planned affair... it was in fact a by product of a faulty attempt... I spent an entire day to prepare some coarsely ground rice flour required for a "Dhuki Pitha".... store bought are fine powders. I failed at it which I later found  to be my fault. Whatever it is, I do not waste my food... I stored a major part of the homemade rice flour for more of "pithe-puli".... and prepared this dessert with the used one.

For this CHAL PATALI GURER HALWA, you can use store bought rice flour. You do not sit idle at home like me.... that should not stop you from enjoying the rest of the things you wish to either .... Do not turn your life in to machines... End of the day, when you carry your physical being to the burning ghat or step into your coffin.... you may find that you actually lived a life in captivation! I keep at least 4-5 flavours of tea bags at home and my recent love coffee! Yet, I enjoy my Teh-o-Kosong at the open food courts. Those tea stall kind of cookies are a childhood favourite. I wish to have them every evening, my health condition does not permit. These open food courts remind me of "desher chaier dokans".... there I cannot sit alone on a roadside tea stall, here I can with ease... no one bothers you... I take a sip and watch another mundane day moving towards an end?.... nope ... to another one.... the baton has to be passed on until we leave for the eternity!

That red packet has "mushurir dal".... with Indian Minimarts around, we need not go to the Super Market always! About this halwa, I will do it for you the way as it should be done from the scratch hoping that your "dhupi pitha" turns into exactly what you wish to! We are using only few ingredients for this yum dessert.... Our boy, who does not like halwa.... had two bowlful, may be  because it tasted more like pudding.

INGREDIENTS :

RICE FLOUR : 1COFFEE MUG
GRATED DATE PALM JAGGERY : 1SMALL TEA CUP
KHOYA KHEER : 1/2SMALL TEA CUP [SEMI SOLIDIFIED MILK AT THIS HOME]
MILK : 2COFFEE MUG [BOILED & SLIGHTLY THICKENED]
GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1/3TSP [MAKE IT FRESH]
GHEE : 2TBSP
DRY FRUITS & NUTS OF YOUR CHOICE TO GARNISH
LOVE : KEEP SHOWERING ONCE YOU ENTER THE KITCHEN

PROCEDURE :

There actually should not be any procedure of cooking... just the ingredients, ideas and love should be well coordinated to get the fruits of labour. In my case, if I do not have the freedom, I cannot deliver!

Okay, heat the ghee in a wok just a little. Add the rice flour. Now keep stirring continuously at the lowest heat  for 3-4 minutes. We will not allow it to burn, neither the raw smell should be there. Take is out and store for a later use.

Add 1 coffee mug of milk and the grated jaggery to the wok. Let the jaggery melt and the mixture come to boil. 

Add the rice flour, fold in well and stir continuously for 2-3 minutes.

Add the remaining 1 coffee mug of milk, grated khoya kheer and fold in well.

Let cook at the lowest heat for 2-3 minutes. Let us add the green cardamom powder and a spoonful of sugar if required!

Fold in well. After a minute or so... transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with dry fruits & nuts.