Dates and Semolina Pudding Recipe

Valentine’s Day is here and for most people it’s about gifting greeting cards, perfumes, flowers and personal gifts to their loved ones. For parents it’s important to include their kids in the celebration too. What can be more beautiful than celebrating the day as a family with a delicious home cooked meal that ends in a comforting dessert.

This delicious breakfast/dessert idea is a twist on the traditional Suji ka Halwa or Semolina Pudding Recipe and a breeze to cook. With lots of dates included, it becomes rich, buttery, sweet and gooey. The humble semolina teamed up with cinnamon, cardamom and rose water touches the exotic level that makes it an epicurean experience.

You can serve it warm as it is or to make it look more fun, it can be poured into a mould or single serving cups. You can use any of your favourite nuts, I prefer to use lots of crushed pistachios to add instant colour and oomph to the pudding. If you are making this for just two people, cut the recipe in half.

To make this Dates and Semolina Pudding recipe more indulgent for any festive occasion you can serve it hot with cream or custard.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup semolina
1/3 cup sugar
15 soft dates
A pinch nutmeg or cinnamon powder
4-5 green cardamoms
1/4 cup desi ghee, butter or olive oil
2 cups water
1 teaspoon rose water
Pistachios for garnishing

This Is a What You Do:
Add sugar and water in a small saucepan and simmer for a few minutes till the sugar is dissolved. Add rose water to the sugar syrup. Remove from heat. We require thin sugar syrup for this recipe.

Remove stones from dates. Chop the flesh into small bits. If you don’t have soft dates, soak the hard ones in warm water for half an hour or till they are soft.

Add oil to a frying pan, crush cardamom seeds and sauté in oil for a few seconds.
Add semolina and keep toasting and stirring till semolina is golden in colour. Keep an eye on it because once it starts changing colour then it turns brown very quickly and we don’t want that.

Add chopped dates and continue to fry and stir for another 2-3 minutes till the semolina and dates are properly mixed.

Reduce heat to medium low and add the rose scented warm/hot sugar syrup gradually to the semolina and dates mix. It’s important to add it a little at a time because warm water makes the mixture bubble up and spatter around. Let the semolina absorb some water then add more. Add pinch nutmeg or cinnamon powder.

Once the semolina pudding becomes thick ( it happens in just a few minutes) you can raise the heat back to medium but keep stirring the pudding till it leaves the edges of the pan and you can see the oil come out on sides.

If you want to serve it in a particular shape, lightly grease a mould and pour hot pudding into it. Lightly press and leaves at room temperature for a while.

Flip over in the serving plate, garnish with pistachios and serve warm.

Serves 4