Taste Buds: Mediterranean Dinner Part 3: Semolina and Nut Halva

Before Cindy and I accidentally flipped to the recipe page in Chef’s Mediterranean cookbook, I had no idea what a halva was. Having not heard it before, we thought, oh cool, it’s exotic to us, so let’s make it! Wiki says there’s many different kinds of halva, and they’re all typically dense and sweet. Hence, dessert!

This halva has a semolina base. I have never used semolina before but after hanging out with Chef for 4 or so years now, I know very well that this type of flour is used to make pasta. I can’t wait for homemade pasta day on our cooking club! That would be a delight.

Anyway, this dessert is relatively easy, but we definitely had to shop for it as there are about 2 to 4 essential ingredients that I would not be keeping stock in my pantry at all. As this is a dessert, I shall definitely include measurements.

For the halva:

1 stick softened, unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

finely grated zest of 1 orange, and 2 tablespoons of the juice

3 eggs

1 cup semolina

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup ground hazelnuts

For the syrup:

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 sticks halved cinnamon sticks

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup orange-flavor water

1/2 cup toasted and chopped unblanched hazelnuts

1/2 cup toasted and chopped blanched almonds

shredded zest of 1 orange.

Get the oven ready by preheating it to 425 degrees F and greasing and lining the bottom of a 9-inch square cake pan (we actually used a rectangular pan and I think that’s better because it made the serving thinner, thus easier to bite.

Lightly cream the butter in a bowl (and by that it actually just means whip the butter with a spatula for a bit) then add the sugar, orange zest and juice, the eggs, semolina, baking powder and hazelnuts. Beat all the ingredients until smooth. Now smooth may be a deceiving word because it’s not ever going to look like a pancake batter (see upper right picture). Once everything is mixed, pour it into the pan and bake for 20 -25 minutes, until it’s firm and golden. Then, let it cool in the pan.

As that’s going, prepare the syrup by putting the sugar in a small, heavy saucepan with 2 1/4 cups of water and the halved cinnamon sticks. Heat it gently and keep on stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let it boil rapidly without stirring for about 5 minutes. Take half of that boiling syrup and add lemon juice and orange-flower water to it. Then, pour it over the halva, and let the halva absorb the syrup. Then, go ahead and remove it from the pan and cut into diamond or square shapes. Sprinkle it with nuts.

With the remaining of the syrup, boil it until it’s slightly thickened, then pour it on the halva again. Sprinkle the cake with orange zest.

The halva is amazing – it was like a sponge that really absorbed all the flavor and aroma of the syrup. The orange-flavor water is so fragrant! I’ve never heard of that too before and I am certainly glad that it was available in our local Nugget because I would have had no idea how to improvise. Cindy and I did a great job on this one, I would say. It was a hit with Chef as well as with Cindy’s fiance! Although they’re very flavorful, I was able to eat 4 -5 squares I believe in one sitting. I loved this dessert because it looks so different. Now I know how to get that texture. I bet if you make the halva cake, you can make a bunch of different flavored syrups! Whoa! Good idea to try!

So, friends, that concludes our Mediterranean meal!