Recipe

		Greek Semolina Halva
		Serving Size - 6
		Prepared By - Sally & Steve
		Recipe Rating	Printer Friendly Recipe

1 cup olive oil

2 cups coarse semolina

100g blanched almonds or shelled walnuts, coarsely ground

FOR THE SYRUP:

2 cups sugar (or 1 cup sugar and 1 cup honey)

3.5 cups water

1 cinnamon stick

2 cloves

2 cardamom pods

Place the syrup ingredients in a small pot and let them boil for a couple of minutes. Remove cinnamon, cloves and rind and set aside but keep warm. In a large pot add the oil and when it is hot pour in the semolina. Reduce the heat to medium and using a wooden spoon stir constantly. The semolina will gradually start turning gold and then darker and darker until it burns. The colour really is matter of taste: the darker the halva the heavier the taste. I am a medium gold type of person. Towards the end of the cooking time add the nuts and let them toast a little bit. Now comes the “tricky” part: you will need to pour the syrup into the very hot semolina. However it will bubble and spatter everywhere so you need to be a little bit away from the pot when you do that. otherwise you will get nasty burns. When you have poured all of the syrup into the semolina return the pot to the fire and stir until the halva starts to thicken. The final consistency should be that of a runny dough. Pour the halva into your pan of choice (you can use a bundt pan, or a loaf pan or even serve it in individual bowls) and let it cool a little bit before serving. You can dust it with some extra cinnamon if you want and decorate with almond slivers.