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Living in Consciousness ~ Indi(r)a’s Food and Garden Weblog

12.Mango Halwa (Mango Flavored Ravva Kesari)

“Heavenly” – that’s how I remember Indian mangoes. “Damn…” That�s what comes out of my mouth, whenever I buy mangoes here. Mangoes available here look big and bulky and if you cut them open, there won’t be rich yellow color, there won’t be any heavenly aroma, and the less said the better about the taste. The product of poor soil and excessive fertilizer use. Well, that’s what we get here. At first, the taste was a shock, then over the time we began to ‘appreciate’ the poor taste of mangoes, of course we don’t have a choice.

Whenever I crave Indian mangoes, out comes the treasured family recipe, mango halwa. Preparing like halwa intensifies the mango flavor. In this recipe, mango puree is cooked with toasted semolina in sugar syrup. The result – rich yellow color is back, heavenly taste and aroma of mangoes that we remember from India is there. Also milk free and relatively low calorie. A little bit different than how the regular halwa is prepared, this favorite of mine is more like – mango flavored ravva kesari.

Mango Halwa
A delight to the senses – mango halwa

Recipe:

3 ripe mangoes or 6 cups of cut mango (3 Costco/Samsclub kind of mangoes)
½ cup fine semolina (Suji ravva works fine too)
¼ to ½ cup sugar (add less or more according to the mango sweetness)
1 tablespoon of melted ghee
3 cardamom pods – seeds finely powdered
1 cup of water

Ripe Mango, Cardamom, Semolina and Sugar - Ingredients for Mango Halwa

1. Peel the mangoes, cut them into cubes. Keep a quarter-cup of finely cubed mango aside. Take the remaining mango in a mixer, blend into fine, smooth puree, without adding water.

2. Heat a half tablespoon of ghee in a skillet, add and lightly toast semolina, just until it leaves raw smell. Remove and keep it aside.

3. In a thick bottomed, wide pan, take water and sugar. Heat them slowly until the sugar melts. Then increase the heat to bring the mixture to a boil. Wait for sugar syrup to thicken a bit and stir in blended mango puree and toasted semolina. Cook the mixture, on medium heat, stirring in-between to prevent sticking, until the mixture reduces by one third. It takes at least 20 minutes. At this stage, sprinkle the cardamom powder and finely cubed mango pieces that were kept aside. Stir, stir…for 2 to 3 minutes and then turn off the heat.

4. Coat a pan or tray with melted ghee and spoon the cooked halwa into the pan. Allow it to cool (halwa thickens further as it cools) and cut into squares. Remove and serve.

Mango halwa tastes great warm or cold. This time, I spooned it into muffin cups for individual sized servings and kept the muffin pan in the refrigerator for about one hour.

Mango Halwa - in Muffin size
Celebrating spring with mango halwa ~ For this week’s Indian Sweets 101.

Makes about 6 regular sized muffin cup portions.
Recipe Source: family
Kitchen Notes: Prepare it with fresh ripe mangoes. Fresh mango puree tastes better and the fiber etc., when cooked contributes to faster thickening of halwa. For this reason avoid store bought watery and preservatives added mango concentrate to prepare this sweet.

Posted by Indira©Copyrighted in Amma & Authentic Andhra,Indian Sweets 101,Mango,Mitai,Suji/Semolina (Thursday March 23, 2006 at 2:20 pm- permalink)
Comments (54)

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54 comments for 12.Mango Halwa (Mango Flavored Ravva Kesari) »

  1. Even i have the same opnions on mangoes. Its been 2 years since i have had mangoes, but ur mango halwa is tempting. I love the gorgeous golden colour of the halwa. AWESOME is all i can say !!

    Comment by priya — March 23, 2006 @ 2:37 pm

  2. Hi Indira,
    Never heard of this sweet anywhere before. Will try for a party and surprise ppl 🙂

    Pictures are great as always!

    About Methi aloo, I make it without onions and garlic and it comes wonderful too.

    Keep up the good work.

    Comment by priti — March 23, 2006 @ 2:37 pm

  3. Thanks Priya and Priti.
    Instead of adding lot of ghee to ravva kesari(suji halwa), we prepare the halwa like this with mangoes. Taste really great and easy also. Give it a try and let me know. Thanks!

    Comment by Indira — March 23, 2006 @ 2:44 pm

  4. When the recent US/India nuclear agreement was announced I baffled my friends by zooming in on the fact that as part of this, the US can now import Indian mangos. Needless to say, people thought I was niutty until an Op-Ed piece in teh NY Times from Madhur Jaffrey said exactly the same thing.

    Setting aside politics, I am thrilled about the mango part of the deal.

    Here in california we get (terrible) Kents and fairly wonderful Manila (also known as Champagne) mangos. However the manila mangos are only available for a few weeks and then that’s it. I am now eating one every day for breakfast…yum…

    Indira replies:
    That’s really an exciting news. When we heard the news we were delighted. Indian mangoes are the best and to get them here, that’s one dream come true, kind of thing.
    I heard about ‘manilas’, but never had a chance to taste them, we don’t get them here Diane.
    Enjoy the mangoes.:)

    Comment by Diane — March 23, 2006 @ 2:45 pm

  5. I was abt to say the same thing Diane.
    Indira,
    Hopefully we can get our baginipalli and rasalu here in US with the new policy. I hate to eat these mexican mangoes.

    SS

    Comment by SS — March 23, 2006 @ 2:48 pm

  6. Gone are those precious summer=mangoes days. I haven’t had a decent mango in almost 3 years.I did have a few drops of juice though(frozen lovingly by my aunt until my India trip). Sweet Banginapalli,tangy Totapuri,divine Alphanso, juicy Rasaalu, fresh mango pickle, mango milkshake,mamidi tandra- no trace of any of these delights:((. Hopefully we’ll see some in the coming years with Bush also “looking forward to Indian mangoes”
    http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=3985
    Your halwa looks Y-U-M!

    Indira replies:
    Among all, banginapalli are the my favorite. They are the best. Yep, I don’t know we’are going to be here in US by that time.:) nonetheless, exciting news.:)

    Comment by Sandhya — March 23, 2006 @ 2:53 pm

  7. hmmmm..never eat this one before.
    Will have to try. My daughter really likes anything with mango in it. Am sure she will LOVE it.

    Comment by Santhi — March 23, 2006 @ 2:55 pm

  8. What a great idea! I will call it ‘Mango Ravva Kesari’. I love mango and I love ravva kesari, but never thought of combining these two. Your combination is great. I’m going to prepare this and it will taste heavenly.

    Comment by Madhavi — March 23, 2006 @ 3:01 pm

  9. Wow! It looks delicious! And that too, A treasured family recipe!!! 🙂 I should try it sometime.

    I had the same reaction when it comes to mangoes in US. We once had to add sugar and nuke it in the microwave to make it sweet! huh!

    Indira, If you have a Trader’s Joes (traderjoes.com) nearby, You can buy frozen mango chunks (NO added sugar or preservatives, colors or flavors. I double checked!). Those are the only decent mangoes I’ve found in US. I use it for mango lassis and most of my guests think I do magic. 😉

    Indira replies:
    Thanks Kay.
    Trader’s Joe – we have to travel atleast 300 miles to get to the nearby shop, not lucky.:)

    Comment by Kay — March 23, 2006 @ 3:15 pm

  10. Indira, yet another new sweet for my sweet tooth from my sweet blof 🙂 … definitely going to try with Trader joe’s frozen mangoes 😉
    These days we are moving towards organic (Kay’s inspiration) and find it healthy and delicious too 🙂

    Indira replies:
    Good choice, KK. Good for you.

    Comment by Karthi Kannan — March 23, 2006 @ 3:41 pm

  11. Hai Indira,
    I never heard of mango halwa.Looks superb!
    U r thinking is great.For me one doubt where we can get vepapoovu for “Ugadi” pachhadi.Can u tell me?
    Vineela

    Indira replies:
    I’ve no idea where you can get ‘vepa poovu’ here, Vineela.

    Comment by vineela krishna — March 23, 2006 @ 4:06 pm

  12. Indira,
    Halwa looks delectable. Never heard of mango halwa before though. Probably because we used to gobble up mangoes as is for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner 🙂 I sure miss the banginapalli variety. My mother stores them in the freezer for me but it is not the same as the fresh one.

    Comment by Arjuna — March 23, 2006 @ 4:20 pm

  13. Hi, Indira,

    This looks very tempting! Lazy as I am, I wonder if this halwa can be prepared with a can of mango puree sitting in our pantry for close to a year.

    Can I omit the cup of water and sugar, and use a cup of commercial mango puree instead?

    Or will that be a BIG mistake?

    Indira replies:
    My guess is as good as yours, Terry.(That’s my standard PC answer) 🙂
    Try it but add just tiny amount of sugar.

    Comment by terri — March 23, 2006 @ 5:06 pm

  14. Indira,
    What is the difference between semolina and suji rava? I always thought they are the same and you would get them in any Indian store. May be this is kinda basic, but I don’t know 🙁

    Indira replies:
    There is a difference, I’m not sure exactly what it is, Mythili. Grocery shevels always carry suji and semolina separately labelled.
    About mammouls – I’m glad they turned out ok. They are not like commercial cookies. Little bit less sweet they taste even better the next day – they are that kind of cookies. Thanks for trying out the recipe and letting me know, Mythili. I appreciate it.

    Comment by Mythili — March 23, 2006 @ 5:34 pm

  15. Very tempting Pics!!I am gonna try this soon.
    How about adding dryfruits like selvered almonds/cashews to give a kick..I am always waiting for Veg pulao /veg biryani..
    Keep up the wonderful work.

    Indira replies:
    That would be a nice addition, sometimes I also add pistachios, the green pistachios look really pretty with yellow colored mango.
    Thanks Celeste.

    Comment by Celeste — March 23, 2006 @ 5:54 pm

  16. Indira,

    I love your site. I want to learn South Indian cooking and your site is just the perfect one to follow. Love it!

    Siv

    Comment by Siv — March 23, 2006 @ 6:00 pm

  17. My God does this look delicious! I’d make it soon but I live in an even more mango-unfriendly place. I actually think back to Chicago with mango nostalgia if you can believe that. In Italy mangoes are rare and really inedible. So I’ll dream…

    Comment by Susan in Italy — March 23, 2006 @ 6:14 pm

  18. hi indira,
    m gonna try this.. i get real bad manoges in walmart, don’t have courage to try this nice looking recepie with them, can i use mango pulp instead? one more question, is this also andhra special? my fiance is from there , me being northie wanna impress mom-in-law 🙂 that’s why.. really helpful site..thanks a lot

    Comment by abhi — March 23, 2006 @ 8:26 pm

  19. What a gorgeous golden yellow color. If we cant have good mangoes we can at least have good muffins 🙂

    Comment by Ashwini — March 23, 2006 @ 8:33 pm

  20. Wow…!!!Looks really Delicious Indira..You are really having some magical power in you..Anything you cook,will be perfect..Again look at that photo..hmmm…mouth watering…
    Gr8 work dear…

    Indira replies:
    The magic is all mangoes, Annita.
    You’re a very sweet person, thanks!

    Comment by Annita — March 23, 2006 @ 9:17 pm

  21. Beautiful halwa!! I loves anything with mangoes in it.

    Comment by RP — March 23, 2006 @ 10:06 pm

  22. Wow, Mango with semolina ,a fruity dessert, I would love to try this season. Varieties of Mangoes are piling up in the market 🙂

    Indira replies:
    You lucky girl. I’m jealous. 🙂

    Comment by Lera — March 23, 2006 @ 10:29 pm

  23. Hi Indira:

    I agree completely with you on mangoes here.

    Never heard of mango halwa. I am making halwa for a party this weekend. I am going to try your mango halwa instead and I even have mangoes in the fridge :). I get the “champagne” kind mangoes that I buy at the International store here and I feel they are MUCH better than the ones we get at the regular grocery stores – sams, costco like. Do look for them if you get a chance.

    Comment by Luv2cook — March 23, 2006 @ 11:21 pm

  24. Wow Indira! You were very true about the veggies and fruits in US. First time when I saw those huge tomatoes and onions, I could only frown in disgust – they looked so unnatural! I’ll definitely try this recipe. My fav is Banganapalli – just too good. I ensure I eat atleast one mango during food everyday during the mango season.

    Comment by Ravi — March 24, 2006 @ 12:30 am

  25. oooooooh… mangoes! We get mangoes from South America here, but usually they’re horribly stringy 🙁 Still, mango halwa is lovely, so I’ll try this recipe anyway!

    Comment by shammi — March 24, 2006 @ 2:29 am

  26. Wow! This is a new sweet for me. Never heard of mango halwa. Hubby is a big fan of mangoes, so have to make this for him.

    Lovely pictures!!!

    Comment by Saffron Hut — March 24, 2006 @ 9:04 am

  27. Indira:
    Gorgeous photos. The second photo is particularly appealing, matched the colors of your webpage. Beautiful!

    Comment by Jan — March 24, 2006 @ 9:33 am

  28. Beautiful, Indira. I’m going to give it a try.

    Comment by ramani — March 24, 2006 @ 10:15 am

  29. I love anything made of mango. I have a large mango sitting in my fruit basket waiting for me to use it. Now looking at ur halva, my mouth is watering and my hands r itching.

    Comment by Puspha — March 24, 2006 @ 6:07 pm

  30. Hi Indira:
    This recipe looks so wonderful; I am a sucker for anything mango and with Indian flavour. I understand you are somewhat near Pittsburgh, so you might be interested to know that the Whole Foods here stocks Champagne mangoes in the summer, and they also carry frozen mango chunks year-round which are reasonably priced and quite good. Maybe not worth a special trip, but if you’re in the area, might be worth your time!

    Comment by april — March 24, 2006 @ 6:40 pm

  31. I ate similar item in Banglore- pineapple halwa or kesari bath with pineapple flavour. If you have that recipe please share. This item looks great.
    Today i bought very big and very sour mangos from Fiesta stores in Austin,Tx. really sour and cheep 99c/lb. even they have big mangos for 99cents.I didn’t taste them as they are not riped fully.

    Comment by vijayvijay — March 25, 2006 @ 8:43 am

  32. Coconut burfi

    Io non amo i dolci, tanto meno quelli indiani, che sono troppo dolci e zuccherosi. Sono belli, intendiamoci, ma veramente sono dolcissimi e lunghissimi nella loro preparazione. Ma durante la settimana in cui il BarYcentro si dedicher? all’India si ser…

    Trackback by ComidaDeMama — March 26, 2006 @ 4:24 am

  33. Mangoes are so precious in France that I never cook them. But your halva seduces me. I must try it. Thank you for the recipe.

    Indira replies:
    You are welcome Virginie.

    Comment by Virginie — March 27, 2006 @ 5:28 pm

  34. This dessert sounds wonderful! Would make a nice alternative to strawberry shrikhand, which is my usual Indian dessert at the moment:)

    Comment by Pille — April 10, 2006 @ 1:20 pm

  35. On first shot, the babies looked like Mango muffins…what an amazing idea for a kesari, though im not the one with a sweet tooth, i can thick of many who will be pleased if i make this one

    Comment by nandita — April 23, 2006 @ 11:58 pm

  36. I prepared it now, its so yummmmmmmmm
    thanks a lot for the recipe

    Comment by Sheeba J — April 26, 2006 @ 10:50 am

  37. hi,i like u r resipi,mango halwa.meri mom bahut khush ho gayi is resipi ko dekh ker.so i really thanks.

    Comment by farhad — March 14, 2007 @ 7:11 am

  38. Hey Indira,
    I love your site and was just trying to find some recipes using mango when the following site caught my attention. The hubber has plagiarized left right center, and I’ve left a comment on her page already. Thought I should keep you informed. http://hubpages.com/hub/Indian_Mango_Recipes_For_The_World
    Keep up the great site!

    Hi Smitha,
    Thanks very much for bringing this to my attention and also posting a comment on her hub page.
    It’s really unfortunate to see people steal. I will contact her and ask her to remove the image.
    Thanks very much.
    – Indira

    Comment by Smitha — October 18, 2007 @ 12:01 pm

  39. It looks like members there are encouraged to create ‘hubs’ which then bring in money (ad clicks) for the site, part of which the hubbers receive.

    http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/816#post4561

    Is it a wonder that those who want a share aren’t very ethical about where they get their content from? Almost everything on such sites is regurgitated that it’s quite sickening.

    Manisha:
    Are they rerepublishing the content from food bloggers sites?
    I will go through this site in detail, once this fund-drive is over.
    Thanks for letting me know about this latest scheme.
    – Indira

    Comment by Manisha — October 18, 2007 @ 1:46 pm

  40. Indira, this mango recipe page had pictures that were taken. The recipes that went with the pictures did not correspond to the images.

    There isn’t much by way of Indian recipes on that site. A couple of recipes I saw had been reproduced with the permission of the blogger.

    I find hubpages rather unethical as a hubber’s fans and visitors are encouraged to click on the ads on the pages to earn money for the hubber, even though the developers of the software insist that most of the traffic comes from the search engines. This is what I found out by reading the forums. The hubbers look up high paying adsense keywords and ‘write’ articles so that they earn about $1 a click or more. To me, this is as bad as splogs.

    So no, it’s not just about food.

    Oh, I just noticed Smitha’s comment.
    It’s really unfortunate how they take advantage of people’s goodwill.
    This is the first time I have come across this new type of scamming. I am sure same with our fellow food bloggers. Please write about this at DH, Manisha.
    Thanks in advance.
    Indira

    Comment by Manisha — October 18, 2007 @ 6:23 pm

  41. Hi Indira,
    The person has ‘conveniently’ blocked/deleted my comment. As Manisha said, its totally unethical behavior and I believe we bloggers need to do something to curtail such behavior.

    Concerned,
    Smitha

    Comment by Smitha — October 24, 2007 @ 12:11 pm

  42. Hey Indira,
    Sorry for flooding your inbox, but here is a site i found using which u can report the person.
    http://hubpages.com/help/copyright_infringement
    Hope that helps!
    -Smitha

    Comment by Smitha — October 24, 2007 @ 12:19 pm

  43. […] It therefore seems most likely that Sugee Cake originated on the Indian subcontinent, a n offshoot of Indian sweets made with sugee, such as halwa and kesari (this recipe being the version from a Singaporean with roots in Kerala, a state also on the southwest coast of India not far from Goa). Halwa and kesari, like many Asian sweets, are both cooked on the stove top, whereas Sugee Cake is baked in an oven, like a European cake, which represents the Eurasian element in this recipe. […]

    Pingback by sbkitchen.info » Blog Archive » Soogee Cake — February 5, 2008 @ 12:51 pm

  44. Hi Indira….

    I really admire your creativity and cooking talent. This blogsite is just amazing.

    Would like to try this recipe. Can the halwa be made with the mango pulp availble from the grocery stores here? If so, kindly let me know the measurement for the same.

    Thanks again.

  45. Hi Dhanya,
    Thanks for the good words.
    About the halwa, yes it could be made with using mango pulp in tin cans. But because of liquidy nature and less fibre, it would take longer cooking time to solidify. Follow the recipe, but adjust the sugar quantities to your taste.
    If you try this recipe, I would love to hear about how it turned out. Do share. Thanks.
    -Indira
  46. Comment by Dhanya — April 1, 2008 @ 11:46 am

  47. woh! lipsmacking and irresistable. this summers best sweet dish which i can serve to my family.

    Comment by tehmina.hasan — April 24, 2008 @ 5:22 am

  48. Hi Indira ji,
    I tried your mango halwa today. OMG! It came out so well. I followed the steps verbatim as you had said & the halwa is so irresistable. My sister in law got me real pulpy and juicy mangoes from subji mandi here in NJ. I used just one big mango with same quantity of other ingredients as you said. I have a sweet surprise for my husband this evening when he gets back home. He loves kesari so much & now he will be overwhelmed. Thanks for your recipe. Continue your great work.

    Comment by viji — August 26, 2008 @ 12:57 pm

  49. Hi, we made these and I have linked to your blog. I like it a lot, nice style and the recipe tasted good!
    Thanks, Daisy xxx

    Comment by Daisy — August 6, 2011 @ 5:44 am

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