Sweet Corn Halwa (Gluten-free)

An unusual, yet delicious halwa made with fresh sweet corn kernels. This dessert is gluten-free and can be made refined sugar-free if you opt to use powdered jaggery instead of sugar. It calls for only a handful of ingredients and, apart from a little elbow grease, is very easy to make. Happy Basant Panchami and Saraswati Puja to those who celebrate.

---

Recipe

Sweet Corn Halwa

(Makes 3-4 servings)

Ingredients

3 ears of fresh sweet corn on the cob, husked
3 tbsp ghee, divided
1/2 cup full fat milk, heated
Few saffron strands
1/2 cup water 
6 tbsp sugar or powdered jaggery
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp slivered pistachios and almonds, to garnish

Method

Scrape the corn kernels off the cobs using a sharp knife (you should get about two and a half cups of corn kernels).

Purée the kernels in a blender until you get a smooth paste.

Reserve 2 teaspoons of ghee and melt the rest in a non-stick pan. Add the corn purée and cook, stirring frequently, over low heat for 15-18 minutes until the raw taste of the corn disappears. 

Steep the saffron strands in the hot milk for 2 minutes. Add the saffron-infused milk into the corn. Add the water and stir well to mix. Continue stirring the mixture over low heat for another 10 minutes.

Add the sugar and stir the halwa until all the liquid is absorbed (about 8 minutes). Taste and add more sugar if you prefer the halwa sweeter.

Mix in the ground cardamom and the reserved ghee. Stir until the halwa turns glossy and leaves the sides of the pan. At this point, the texture will be similar to that of sooji (semolina) halwa.

Garnish the sweet corn halwa with the slivered nuts and serve warm.