Ananas Sheera / Pineapple Sooji Halwa

Some homemade Indian sweets are absolutely delectable... like this Sheera. Bollywood Moms have made it famous as Sooji ka Halwa. In Southern India, sheera is known as Rava Kesari. It is made for Prasad as well. 

At our place, Sheera is my Dad's signature dish with a lot of ghee. My Dad makes Sheera adding fruits like pineapples, bananas and sometimes mango. For now, lets eat Ananas Sheera.

Ingredients:

Canned Pineapple Chunks - 227 gm (about 1 cup)

Rava/Sooji/Semolina - 1 cup

Ghee/Clarified Butter - 5 tbsp

Sugar - about 1/4 cup

Water - 3 cups

Cashews/Kaju or any other dry fruits - 1/4 cup

Green Cardamom/Elaichi - 2 pods

Saffron/Kesar - few strands

How to cook Pineapple Sheera:

• Crush cardamom seeds and saffron in a mortar pestle to a fine powder.
• Finely chop the pineapple chunks. Roughly chop cashews.
• Add 1 tbsp ghee in a pan and fry cashews until slightly brown. Keep it aside.
• In the same pan, add the remaining 4 tbsp ghee. Add semolina. Roast it at low heat until semolina changes slightly in color and turns aromatic.
• Meanwhile, heat 3 cups of water in a pot.
• When water starts boiling, add it to the roasted semolina. Lower the heat and let the semolina absorb the water.
• Lastly, add sugar, fried cashews, cardamom, saffron and chopped pineapple. Stir and cook it covered at low heat for 2 - 3 minutes or until moisture is completely lost. Turn off the heat and garnish Sheera with pineapple chunks or fried cashews.