Mixed Nuts Burfi/Mewa Burfi/Meva Halwa

Blogging Marathon #45: Week 4/Day 3

Theme: Festival Recipes(Diwali)

Dish: Mixed Nuts Burfi/Mewa Burfi

To end the series of festival recipes, I have yet another burfi recipe, which is as simple as burfi making can get. It is 'Mewa Burfi'. "Mewa" - not to be confused with 'Mawa' or 'Khoa' means 'Mixed Nuts' in Hindi. I first came across this mixed nut flavor and name when I tasted a box of assorted sweets that one of our co workers who visited the India office had gotten. I absolutely loved the flavor, that I tried to find out what it could have been made of and hence learnt what the term 'Mewa' meant. It is made by cooking a ground mixture of nuts along with sugar and milk solids. You can use whatever mixture of nuts you have on hand, and the milk solids are represented by ricotta cheese in this recipe, which makes it such a breeze to make these burfis, and also yields a soft fudge like texture to these burfis.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#45Ingredients:

1/2 cup walnuts 1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup cashews 1/4 cup pistachios

1/4 cup dry coconut powder

16 oz ricotta cheese

1/8 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 tsp cardamom powder s

liced almonds, for garnish

butter for greasing tray

Grease a cookie sheet with butter(half the sheet) and set aside.

Start by placing all the nuts in the food processor and making a coarse powder. You can just make this with a mixture of whatever nuts you have on hand, or with just one kind of nut. Take care when grinding the nuts, to not over process it, or you will end up with nut butter and not powder. You need a total of 2 1/3 cups of nut powder. Set aside.

In a non stick pan over medium heat, place the ricotta cheese and sugar. Let this come to a boil. Keep stirring until the sugar dissolves in the ricotta. Next add the nut powder and coconut powder and salt. Let the nuts absorb all the moisture. Cook this mixture until all the water evaporates and the mixture comes together in a single mass, about 12 -15 minutes. Sprinkle the cardamom powder and cook for a couple more minutes. Pour the mixture on the greased cookie sheet, pat down to ensure a smooth top. Top with the sliced almonds for garnish. Let cool completely and cut into burfis. Keep the burfis refrigerated in an airtight container.

Verdict: These burfis are so rich, moist and fudgy thanks to the nuts and the ricotta cheese. Again, this recipe is so easy and effortless, but yet you will get kudos for a different sweet dish that everyone will be curious as to what it means. :)