Sheera

Semolina toasted in ghee until golden and fragrant, then stirred with hot milk, sugar and saffron into a thick, lustrous halwa: perfumed with cardamom and studded with cashews and raisins. Sheera (also called sooji halwa or rava sheera) is the temple offering, the auspicious beginning, the prasad: the first thing devotees eat on a sacred day.

Origin: Maharashtra & Gujarat, India

From the journey of Wheat.

Sheera belongs to the ancient family of halwa (from the Arabic for "sweet"); grain or nut pastes cooked in fat and sweetened with sugar or date syrup. The tradition of semolina halwa spread across the Arab and Persian worlds and arrived in India with both trade routes and the Mughal kitchen. In Maharashtra and Gujarat, sheera is prepared as prasad (consecrated food) at temples and distributed to all worshippers without distinction of caste or class. The Saraswati puja version, made in Karnataka and Maharashtra on the festival of learning, is one of the most ritually significant foods in Hindu practice. Pakistan makes the same semolina halwa, where it is a fixture of religious and family occasions in Punjab and Sindh under the same name, and the wheat it is made from has been grown on the same ground since the Indus cities.

Ingredients

  • 200 g fine semolina (sooji/rava)
  • 80 g ghee
  • 500 ml whole milk, warmed
  • 150 g sugar
  • a large pinch, soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk Saffron strands
  • 6 Green cardamom pods, seeds ground
  • 40 g cashew nuts
  • 30 g raisins

Method

  1. Melt ghee in a heavy wide pan over medium heat. Add cashews and fry until golden. Remove and set aside. Add raisins, fry 30 seconds until plump. Remove.
  2. Add the semolina to the ghee and toast, stirring constantly, for 6–8 minutes until pale golden and the raw flour smell disappears. This step is critical.
  3. Carefully pour in the warm milk; it will splutter. Stir immediately and continuously. Add the sugar and saffron milk.
  4. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 5–7 minutes until the sheera thickens and pulls away from the sides of the pan.
  5. Add the cardamom, fold in the cashews and raisins. Serve immediately from the pan, or press into small bowls and invert for shaped portions.
The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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