Gulkand Sheera/Halwa - Rose flavored cream of wheat pudding

Sheera or halwa made with rava/semolina/cream of wheat is possibly the most popular sweet dish in India. Every household makes it and it is made as dessert of even as a breakfast dish. It is made as a sweet to celebrate special occasions. And many a times when someone shares good news, this is made on the spur of the moment to celebrate the news. You can add pineapple or another fruit to it to flavor it. If you want to make it rich, substitute half of the water with whole milk and increase the amount of clarified butter/ghee. Then add roasted slivered almonds and cashews to it to transform it into the most decadent dessert ever. You can find the orange colored version of it in many Indian restaurant buffets and it is called "kesari". Kesari is the color that you get when you add "kesar" aka saffron to the dish. In restaurants it is usually a food color that is added, but at home you can add a pinch of saffron to give it a royal feel. A versatile dessert called by many different names and everyone has a favorite version.

This time around,  I decided to give it a twist and make it rose flavored by adding a home made rose preserve that I made using the roses from my garden. The dessert had a lovely fragrance and a delicate rose flavor.

Ingredients 
1 cup rava/semolina/cream of wheat
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp of sugar
1/3 cup ghee
2 tbsp gulkand
2 cups water
2 tsp rose water
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
2 tbsp raisins
Rose petals for decoration

Method 
I am giving three different methods of cooking this.

Method 1
Roast the semolina/rava/cream of wheat till fragrant on medium heat in a dry pan. It should be lightly browned and at this point it will have a nutty roasted fragrance. In a deep saucepan, mix together the water, sugar. Cover and let it come to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, add the roasted semolina into the water and stir well. And after a minute, turn off the heat. Cover the saucepan for 15 mins with a well fitting lid, letting it cook in the heat of the water. Then open the lid, add the ghee, cardamom powder, gulkand, raisins and mix them all in thoroughly and cover for 5 more minutes.  Once it is luke warm, stir in the rose water.

Method 2
Heat butter or ghee in a pan. Once hot, add the semolina/rava/cream of wheat and roast it till light brown and when you can smell the nutty flavor. Keep aside. Then mix together the water and sugar in a deep saucepan and let it come to a boil. Once it starts boiling, add the roasted semolina/rava/cream of wheat and stir well, let it cook for a minute and turn off the heat. Cover with a lid and let it cook in the heat for 15 minutes. Then open the lid, and add the cardamom powder, raisins, gulkand and mix them in thoroughly and cover it for another 5 minutes. Once luke warm, stir in the rose water.

Method 3
Heat butter or ghee in a deep pan. Once hot, add the semolina/rava/cream of wheat and roast it till light brown and when you can smell the nutty flavor. At the same time, heat the water, and bring it to a boil. Once the rava is roasted, pour the water onto the rava and mix it well. It will splatter a lot and this is the messiest of the three methods. Turn the heat to a low when pouring the water to minimize the splatter. Then stir it and cover it and let it cook on low heat for a few minutes till it fluffs up, stirring nad covering a couple of times. Then once it is cooked and fluffy, add the sugar and mix. It will dissolve and make the resultant mixture a little fluid. Keep cooking it till you get a drier texture. Then as it finished cooking add the cardamom powder, raisins, gulkand and mix them in thoroughly. Take it off the heat and cover it for 5 minutes and let it rest. Once luke warm, stir in the rose water.

The resultant sheera/pudding does not have an overpowering rose taste but a mild fragrant  rose flavor. You can serve this warm or at room temperature.

Here are the recipes to make ghee at home and gulkand at home using your garden roses.
Ghee/Clarified Butter
Gulkand/Rose Preserve

Tips
You can decrease or increase the amount of gulkand based on your taste Keep stirring the semolina/rava/cream of wheat  when roasting it, so that it doesn't burn. Once it starts to brown, reduce the heat a little else it is easy to burn it. You can buy the rose preserve, also called gulkand in the local store that sells Indian/Asian foods. You can also make it at home (see the link above). You may also find rose jam which you can also use. If you are unable to find the gulkand, substitute it with the same amount of sugar. And increase the rose water to 4 tsps.

Gulkand (Rose Preserve)

Gulkand is a highly fragrant and delicious rose preserve. Gulkand is said to have a cooling property and is usually eaten in summers. We usually eat about a spoonful of it with milk. I have also used it to make different sweets. So far, I had always bought gulkand. This year I decided to try my hand at making it from the roses in the garden.

We have been having a lovely spring and this year the rose plants are producing beautiful, and extremely fragrant roses. The roses are so fragrant, that I was very tempted to make gulkand using them. I remembered that my mom had made gulkand from the roses in her garden last year. So, I called her and she explained the process to me. Now I just had three large roses and I wanted to see how the gulkand would turn out without having to wait for the time period that the traditional method entails. So, I decided to try to experiment with instant methods and they worked beautifully. I would recommend the traditional method if you have the patience, as it produces the most fragrant gulkand, but the instant methods are also great quick recipes which produce equally flavorful gulkand. See the tips below for pros and cons of both methods.

I used three large flowers to make the gulkand. It was a small quantity but very satisfying as it was made using flowers from the garden. I began with an ounce (28 gm) of flower petals which resulted in about 1/3 cup of gulkand.

Ingredients

Rose petals (any color)

Sugar

Water (if using instant method)

Method

Make sure that the roses you are using are edible and are not sprayed with any toxic pesticides. Any color rose petals can be used. The more fragrant the rose, the better aroma the gulkand will have. Remove the petals from the roses, gently and then wash these very gently. To do this, fill a bowl with water, and submerge the petals in it. Gently swirl them around and remove the water. By doing this, you ensure that the petals don’t get bruised. Then, use a salad spinner and dry the rose petals out. And spread these on a cotton cloth and let them dry for a couple of hours till absolutely dry. This is an important step if you are going to use the traditional method of making gulkand. Next, weigh the petals and then weigh an equal amount of sugar. If you don’t have a weighing scale, take enough sugar to cover all the petals with sugar. You can always take a little more sugar but at the minimum it should be at least equal in weight or enough to cover the petals. Now continue with one of the methods below. See tips below on the pros and cons of each method.

Traditional method

Cut the petals and crush them lightly and place them in a glass container. Cover the petals with the sugar. Close the lid and place in the sunlight. In the evening, bring the container inside. The next morning, shake the container to mix the petals and semi melted sugar.  If you have more rose petals to add, follow the same procedures. Add a layer of the petals and cover them with sugar. Continue this till you have filled the bottle with the desired volume of petals. Keep this in the sunlight during the day and make sure to shake the bottle and stir the petal and sugar mixture. Continue this for a couple of weeks till the sugar has melted and the petals are nicely coated and have a brown hue. You can taste it at this stage and determine if the petals are the right consistency. If the temperature is high during the day, the gulkand will be formed n a week to 10 days after you have stopped adding the petals and sugar. It will take longer with milder weather.

Instant method #1

Cut the petals and crush them lightly. In a saucepan, add the sugar. Add a few spoons of water, just enough to ensure that the sugar is wet and there is enough water to stir it. Heat this and make a syrup. Add the petals and boil them for a few mins till wilted and cooked. Take off the heat and let cool.

Instant method #2

Cut the petals and crush them lightly. In a pressure cooker safe bowl add the petals, sugar and a few spoons of water. Stir it and cover the bowl with a lid or aluminum foil so that it is tightly covered and the steam created during the pressure cooking will not enter the bowl. Add water to the pressure cooker as per the directions for your cooker. Then place the bowl in the pressure cooker and cook the petal and sugar mixture for about 5/6 whistles or 4 minutes in an electric pressure cooker. Once the pressure drops, remove the bowl and remove the lid/foil gently ensuring that any water collected on it doesn’t fall into the bowl. Stir the mixture and let it cool.

Tips

The traditional method preserves the fragrance better and the gulkand will have a stronger aroma. However, it does take longer for the gulkand to get cooked in the sunlight. This is however a better method with long term storage. Since the roses are preserved in sugar and additional moisture is not added, it is a better method to make it in bulk as it will not get spoiled easily. As long as you do not introduce any moisture, it will last even an entire year.

The instant method is much faster and you will be able to eat the gulkand immediately instead of having to wait for weeks. It is better when you are planning to use just a few roses. The taste is flavorful, however the fragrance is not as strong as it evaporates a little due to the heating at high temperatures. A small quantity will last without refrigeration for a couple of weeks, but keep it in the fridge for longer storage time.

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Gulkand Barfi - Rose Fudge

Gulkand are rose petals preserved in sugar. It is made by preserving rose petals with sugar and kept in a glass bottle in the sun till the sugar melts. This preserved mixture is extremely fragrant and delicious and a delicacy. It is meant to give a cooling effect during the summer months.

This sweet recipe came about in an interesting way. My husband had brought Gulkand Barfi from India a few years ago and when we were discussing the menu for Diwali treats this year, he suggested I make it. I had only eaten this sweet that one time. And it had been quite a while since then and I couldn't remember what it was made of.  He told me that it definitely had gulkand and coconut and I would need to figure out the rest.

Well, I started off with sugar and coconut and then added the other ingredients based on the description of the sweet. The end result was extremely delicious and finger licking. I just cannot stop eating it.

Ingredients
3 cups shredded fresh coconut
2.5 cups sugar
1/2 cup gulkand
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz can)
1 packet milk powder (90 gm pack)
2 tsp of milk
2-3 drops red/pink food color (optional)
1-2 tsps of ghee to grease the plate
1-2 drops of rose essence

Method
Take a plate or tray in which you will pour out the barfi and set it and grease it well with ghee.

Mix together the sugar and coconut and heat this. Once the sugar has melted, add the evaporated milk and the milk powder and cook this on low heat, stirring often.  Keep stirring and cook it down till you can see the base of the pan. Add a couple of teaspoons of warm milk to the gulkand and stir it in. Stir it well so that the gulkand liquefies a little so that it can easily be stirred and incorporated into the mixture that is being cooked.

When the mixture thickens enough that when you stir it, the base of the pan can be easily viewed for a few seconds, then the mixture is ready to be poured into the greased plate. At this point add the gulkand and then increase the heat and stirring continuously again cook it down to the consistency where it is ready to be poured onto a greased plate. Turn off the heat, add  the color and essence is using and mix in it thoroughly. Pour the mixture onto the greased plate and using a bowl or measuring cup spread the mixture out into the plate. Make sure to grease the base of the cup with ghee, so that the mixture doesn't stick. Use it to level the mixture and flatten it. Now, let the mixture cool.  When it has cooled to a luke warm temperature, it will solidify a little. At this stage, you can cut it into squares.

Tips
If you want to speed up the cooking process, you can increase the heat but be sure to stand at the stove and keep stirring so that it doesn't brown or stick to the pan.  An alternate method to check if the mixture is at the right consistency is to take a  drop full of the mixture into a plate and as soon as it is cool enough to touch, try to roll it into a ball. If you are able to roll it, then the mixture is ready to be poured. The gulkand is added at the last step and cooked for a minimal time so that is maintains its fragrance. If you take this off the heat a little early and the barfi ends up being soft after cooling completely, you can reheat the mixture. However, you will end up losing the fragrance from the gulkand. So definitely add the essence before you put it into the greased pan. The taste will be the same.