Bread Halwa

I have been wanting to write about this for sometime, but some how was pulling myself from it. Now I feel I should write and clear off my mind.

We often refer to food that looks good to our eyes or tastes out of the world as "heavenly" or "divine". Seriously, I cannot get my mind to accept those two terms for food in this earth when Allah has clearly promised in the Quran that food and drink in heaven is much more than our little mind can ever imagine. He has given us hints in various places in the Quran as to how it would be, even though it is way beyond our imagination. We cannot fathom how good the food and drink in heaven would be, how awesome it would smell, etc. still Allah gives us an idea how the afterlife in heaven would be, in order to motivate us to do good deeds and to pull ourselves from committing bad deeds. Allah has asked us: "O you who believe! Eat and drink the good things We have provided you and give thanks to Allah, if you worship only Him." (Surah Baqarah:172). This clearly means that the food and drink on earth can be classified as two - good and bad. Bad is what is prohibited - canine and swine flesh, blood, wine, etc. "Divine" or "heavenly" food will never have a classification - it will all be good, pure, with tastes that we can never imagine. Then how can we call good food on this earth with these attributes? Alhamdulillah, He has blessed us from millions of people, giving us the opportunity, money and all that requires to eat and drink clean, good food. Due to this blessing, we have the duty of ensuring that we eat limited and do not waste, and thank Him for His endless mercy. I feel it very inappropriate to use these terms while describing earthly food, when we can use words like "delicious", "lipsmacking", etc...

I guess after that heavy talk there, a very simple dessert is what I share today. In a mood to make some bread halwa off some extra wholemeal bread that I had bought on offer, I set off searching for a recipe. Most of them use deep fried bread slices, which is a big no-no for me! The healthier versions had toasted bread or flipped with a little ghee on a dosa tawa. I chose the second part to go ahead with my halwa. I also could find people calling Bread Halwa as "Double Ka Meetha"! I thought the latter was a totally different dessert, much richer in taste and texture! However, I am not going to confuse myself for a name - I will call this just "Bread Halwa". :)

Bread Halwa
Serves 4


Ingredients:

1 tbsp ghee
6 large slices brown bread
1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
A couple of strands of saffron

For garnish:
1 tsp ghee
10 cashew nuts
10 raisins

Method:

Heat a pancake pan and shallow fry the brown bread in the ghee till toasted on both sides.

Heat the milk, sugar and saffron and allow to cook on low flame for 10 minutes. Add the toasted bread and mash into the milk mixture. Mix well and cook on simmer for 5 minutes.

Heat ghee. Fry the cashew nuts and puff the raisins. Pour over the bread halwa and give a final mix. Enjoy warm or cold - as per your like!

Notes:

1. You can use white bread instead of brown bread.
2. Saffron can be replaced by cardamom or cinnamon powder.

On an end note, since I mentioned about Jannah above, I wish to share this lovely post I read last week... May Allah keep you and me strong in His Path and bless us with His Eternal Paradise...

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