Thursday, June 18, 2009

Accidental Halva

A while ago, I received a recipe-exchange request by e-mail from my dear friend Sarah. I haven't been able to reply yet (please forgive, I will...), but this morning I accidentally invented a new Tajik breakfast fare that is too good to be missed:

ingredients:
flour (I only had buckwheat flour - let me know your results with any other type)
eggs
milkpowder (Iluka had just drunk all the real milk)
water (I was lucky that morning...)
vegetable oil
sugar

Sounds like pancake mix? That's exactly what I was trying to achieve

1. Mix together 1/2 cup flour, 1 egg, some milk powder and a random amount of water

2. Heat up some oil in a pan

3. Pour a generous scoop of mixture in the center of the frying pan

4. Realize the oil is not hot enough (damn electric stoves!) and the mixture too thick

5. Enhance pancake mix by spontaneously adding another egg, some oil and more water

6. Scrape the first (test) pancake from the bottom of the pan and discard into garbage bin

7. Brush off any suspicion that pancake failure might not be blamed on the texture of the mixture (oh, nice - say this 10 times real fast...), but on the utensils (cheap metal pan with concave center)

8. Add more oil in the pan (wait longer this time) and add another scoop of mixture

9. Let it simmer for a bit, then carefully check with a scapula around the edges and try to remember all your pancake or crêpe flipping tricks

10. Realize that the center is stuck and that with the high rim of the pan there's no way to ever flip this pancake

11. Ponder over the problem for a minute, then opt to try for scrambled pancake, having the famous Austrian 'Kaiserschmarrn' in mind.

12. Scramble and scrape away - don't let this sucker burn!

13. Maybe it's the buckwheat or the soggy mix... everything will turn into mud colored mush and stay that way

14. After another moment of reflection and determined not to let the pancake defeat you, add more oil and generous amounts of sugar

15. Disregard the appearance of your dish and proudly present to husband: "Look, I've made halva!"

Iluka: Yummm, encore?

6 comments:

Ed said...

I've passed the recipe on to Lulu, so you can expect to see that on the menu when you return. :p

Anonymous said...

TRY MAKING HALWA WITH SEMOLINA (AKA SUJI KA HALWA) OR EVEN ORANGE CARROTS (AKA KAJAR HALWA) AND MIX ALOT OF DRY FRUITS AND BROWN SUGAR IN IT !

SERIOUS SWEET STUFF !

Sarah said...

Hmm... popularity of dish related to "generous amounts of sugar" maybe?! :) sounds erm, lovely, nonetheless! xx

Anonymous said...

sugar as you like

Ed said...

Jacques, my friend, you need help...

jacques said...

I need new hairs, I feel so naked. Cook me breakfast please.