Skip to main content

Cranberry Sheera / Sooji Halwa

Cranberry Halwa
Cranberry Shira

Sheera or Sooji ka Halwa or Kesari is a rich, decadent dessert traditionally made using Ghee (Clarified Butter) and with lots of dry fruits - golden raisins, cashews, almonds.  Some like to cook this sweet with milk - Milk Kesari.  
Let me tell you how I make this delicacy - with store bought unsalted butter, crunchy cashews and slightly tart cranberries.

Ingredients:
Semolina/Rava/Sooji - 1 cup
Unsalted Butter - 1/4 pound (1/2 cup)
Sugar - about 1/3 cup
Dry Cranberries - about 1/2 cup
Cashews - about 1/4 cup
Green Cardamom/Elaichi - 4 pods
Nutmeg/Jaiphal - 1/8 tsp
Saffron/Kesar - few strands

How to make Sheera using Butter:
  • Crush cardamom seeds and saffron in a mortar pestle to a fine powder. Roughly chop cashews and cranberries.
  • Heat 3 cups of water in a pot.  Wait until water starts boiling.  
  • Heat 1 tbsp butter in a kadhai or a pan.  Fry cashews in butter until cashews turn golden brown.  Keep them aside.  Now fry cranberries and save them for later too.
  • In the same pan, add the remaining butter.  When butter starts melting, add semolina.  Roast it at low heat until semolina changes slightly darker in color and turns aromatic.  Now turn off the heat and add hot water, fried cashews and cranberries.  Stir and let semolina absorb all the water.
  • Lastly, add sugar, ground cardamom, saffron and grated nutmeg. Stir well and you will notice that sheera starts leaving the edges of the pan. Cranberry Shira is ready to devour.
  • Cranberries are slightly tart, you might need more sugar if you like your Sheera more sweeter.
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 4, 2014 at 9:58 AM

    Looks absolutely delicious and tempting.. great recipe!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ShrutiAugust 8, 2014 at 8:15 AM

    Awesome recipe.. I love cranberries and I have heard that they are very good for health as well.. I make sure to buy this new juice called kdd harvests cranberry juice or pomegranate every weekend.. but I have never seen this fruit around.. any idea where I could find them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UmaAugust 8, 2014 at 2:59 PM

      Fresh cranberries are more common around September, October. I use dry cranberries for desserts which are available in the snacks aisle of many local stores here in Michigan. You might find it online as well, I guess. Hope that helps.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Comments, Suggestions and Feedback are welcome.
Any comment with a Link/URL or any kind of promotion will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Naval Kol Bhaji / Kohlrabi Stir-fry

Green Kohlrabi called as Navalkol in Marathi and Navilkosu in Kannada, belongs to the cabbage family.  My Mom used to make this stir fry very often.  Just like cabbage, this vegetable in available in two colors - green and purple.  I was quite hesitant about the purple one, as I haven't seen that back in India.  Anyway, I picked the green bulbs and Navalkohl Bhaji with Chana Dal was part of our healthy vegetarian meal today.
14 comments
Read more

Indian Dal / Lentils

Lentils, known as Dal are a staple in an Indian diet, especially vegetarian. For me, dal is comfort food. 5 different dal varieties - Toor, Moong, Chana, Masoor and Urad are commonly used in Indian sweet and savory delicacies. You can cook dal with just one kind or a mix of two or more. I generally cook dal with 1:1 Toor and Moong dals. But then, we like Panchmel or Panchratna Dal too, which is made of all five. Most dal recipes have Toor dal as the primary ingredient. It is also known as Toovar or Arhar dal or Split Pigeon Peas . Some of our family favorite dal recipes are Dalitoy (Konkani Dal)  Tadka Dal Among all lentils, moong dal and masoor dal take lesser time to cook. Moong dal is also known as Split Green Gram or Split Mung Bean . Moong dal is also used in making sweet dishes like Mung Dal Kheer  Mung Dal Puranpoli Chana dal is also known as Split Bengal Gram or Split Chickpeas . Chana Dal takes a little more time to cook as compared to toor dal....
Post a Comment
Read more

Whole Wheat (Atta) Veg Samosa

Samosa, the most loved Indian appetizer with a crisp crust and savory potato stuffing. When you make such fried fast food at home, you get to make some changes to make it healthy.  Here are some Whole Wheat Aloo Matar Samosas for you to try at home and savor them as much as we did. Ingredients: Whole Wheat Flour/Atta - 1 cup Carom Seeds/Ajwain/Owa - 1 tsp Ghee/Clarified Butter - 1/2 tbsp (optional) Olive Oil or any other Oil - 1/2 tbsp Potatoes (Russet) - 2 medium Green Peas/Matar - 1/2 cup Coriander/Dhania Powder - 1/2 tsp Cumin/Jeera Powder - 1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp Ginger (grated) - 1/4 tsp Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp Turmeric/Haldi - 1/4 tsp Green Chilli - 1 Coriander/Cilantro Leaves - few sprigs Salt Oil for frying How to make Indian Samosa: Making Samosa Crust:  In a mixing bowl, add whole wheat flour, carom seeds and little salt. Heat ghee and olive oil in a small pan. Add this hot (not warm) ghee and oil to the wheat flour and mix...
9 comments
Read more