The indispensable sugar in our recipes

Sad but true that sugar is not taken to kindly by health gurus. Sugar is the cause of many a health issue but let’s admit it there are hardly any sweet dishes that can be prepared without adding sugar. 

I have a sweet tooth and fortunately have no health issues that I can simply devour  candies and desserts which have a lot of sugar in it. 

To list a few goodies where sugar is inevitable – cakes and pastries, biscuits, preserved fruit juices, desserts such as mousse, blancmange, china grass, jelly, jam, souffle, halwa, toffee, chocolates, jujups, gelatine delights, marshmallows, burfi, gulab jam, marzipan, jalebi, most Christmas sweets, fruit and milk shakes,ice cream, fruit salads, falooda This list consists of only  what I have tasted. There could be many others that are the speciality of countries far and wide. I even add sugar to my vegetable dishes and salads

Not only do I buy those goodies – chocolates being my favourite – I try my hand at making desserts and sweets that require a lot of sugar. 

Yesterday I made banana halwa

 We had a big bunch of bananas that had to be consumed. They got ripe all at once. Making banana halwa was the only alternative. 

I peeled all the bananas and mashed them all up. There were 3 cups in all. I added three sups of sugar and started cooking the stuff on slow fire. The only problem with sweets like halwa is that one needs to stir the stuff continuously. 

It was not a big quantity and so stirring did not pose much of a problem. As the stuff changed colour – it gets a golden colour – I added a handful of almonds which were sliced. A tablespoon of homemade ghee was thrown in. And a dash of cardamom powder. 

 The stirring continued until the stuff left the side of the pan and became one ball. I am not so perfect with making halwa.  .It had to be just right neither underdone nor overdone If it is underdone then the halwa cannot be cut and if it is overdone then it becomes hard and the colour turns to black.  

I was careful and saw to it that I managed to cook it to the cutting consistency. The stuff was then poured in a tray which was already lined with a touch of ghee. 

It looked inviting. I kept the stuff in the fridge for it to harden. When I took it out after a couple of hours I saw that it had hardened and could be cut into pieces. 

Happy that I was able to make a perfect halwa. 

This method can be used for guavas and such moist fruits where the ratio of the fruit pulp and sugar is 1:1 and no water is added. 

These days there are substitutes for sugar which are reported to have no health hazards but nothing can replace sugar when it comes to getting the natural taste of goodies in question.