Arrowroot Pudding (Halwa Nashashta)

Ingredients

• half a pound of arrowroot
• half a pound of butter
• half a pound of sugar
• one pint of water

Method

1. 1

   Soak arrowroot in half the water until nearly soft, then drain.

2. 2

   In a pot with boiling butter, stir in the arrowroot.

3. 3

   Make a syrup with sugar and remaining water, add to the mixture, and cook while stirring until it forms a mass.

4. 4

   Lift with a spoon until smooth.

5. 5

   Serve with fruits preserved in sweet syrups.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Banquets of the nations (1911) by Robert H. Christie, page 13. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

half a pound of butter in which you have first fried a couple of minced onions. Place the whole into a pan with six stoned peaches, a cupful of raisins, twelve sweet prunes (stoned), a cupful of pine cone seeds, a teaspoonful each of ground cinnamon, green ginger, sugar, two sliced green chillies, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix all well together, and pour in three cupfuls of sour milk and one of melted butter, and stew very slowly for at least four hours. Serve with buttered beetroots and brown bread. Buttered Beetroots. Wash two pounds of beetroots very carefully, taking care not to break the skin, or they will bleed. Boil in salted water with some corriander leaves and a couple of bay leaves and a teaspoonful of whole peppers. When tender, take them out of the water and skin very care- fully. Cut them into nice pieces, heat a pound of butter, and put them into it, and stew for half an hour. When for European cookery, cut them into thin slices, place in a jar and pour boiling spiced vinegar over, and in a couple of days you have pickled beetroot. Pillau-i-Habate. (Pillau of Vegetables.) Boil any kind of vegetables in season, such as potatoes, artichokes, cauliflower, cucumbers, carrots, pumpkins, and vegetable marrows. Strain the vegetables and put to one side. 4 AFGHANISTAN Melt, say, three ounces of butter, and, when boiling, fry two onions sliced very fine, and when brown, but not charred, make the following into a paste, and fry in the butter, viz. : — A teaspoonful each of mustard seeds, turmeric, and chillies, a quarter of a teaspoonful of garlic, and three corriander leaves. When smoothly made into a paste and fried, put in a cupful of milk curd, 6 ounces of butter, and when all is amalgamated pour the whole over the vegetables, which you have first put into another pan. Mix thoroughly, and simmer for twenty minutes. Dish up and surround with rice. Kaurmah-i-gusht-i-Gusfand. (Curried Mutton.) Fry a couple of minced onions in butter. Cut up two pounds of mutton into small pieces and fry in the butter. Place the whole in a stewpan with a teaspoonful each of ground corriander, cummin, cardamoms, green ginger, a point of garlic, and two large red chillies sliced, a dozen stoned sour plums, a handful of raisins, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Stew very slowly for four hours, and eat with new bread, boiled rice, and buttered parsnips. Buttered Parsnips. Thoroughly clean the roots and cut into pieces of about two inches long and half-an-inch thick, boil in salted water, and, when tender, drain and put them into another pot with plenty of butter and stew for half an hour. For European cookery they must be mashed and beaten up with a good bit of butter and some cream. Season with pepper and salt to taste. 5 BANQUETS OF THE NATIONS Kaurmah-i-Chuchai Murgh. (Stewed Chicken.) Lightly fry two medium-sized onions sliced very thin in half a pound of boiling butter. Remove the onions and fry in the butter a plump chicken ; when brown all over place it in a pan, add the onions, a handful of pounded almonds, four oranges which have been pre- served in sugar syrup, and cut in quarters, a teaspoonful each of ground cardamoms, cinnamon, half a teaspoonful of nutmeg, two bay leaves, two sliced chillies, a tea- spoonful of salt, and quarter that quantity of white pepper. Pour into the pan another half-pound of melted butter and a cupful of milk curds. Cover very closely and stew for at least four hours. Remove the bay leaves and eat with brown bread. Preserved Oranges. Wash and dry half a dozen oranges. Cut a very thin piece out of the rind, about the thickness of a thin cord, as if you were quartering them. Boil them in plenty of water till they are quite tender, then cut them into the quarters already marked off ; cut out the pips and the hard bits of pith ; boil in plenty of strong sugar syrup for half an hour ; let them steep in the syrup for four days, then boil for fifteen minutes, and do this four times ; strain into another pot and add more syrup and boil to a crackling point and pour over the oranges. When cold, tie down very carefully. 6 AFGHANISTAN Halwa Nashashta. (Arrowroot Pudding.) Half a pound of arrowroot, half a pound of butter, half a pound of sugar, and one pint of water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.