Recipe for "halvas"

NAME

     HALVAS - A Greek dessert with semolina
     This is a traditional greek dessert that is extremely tasty.

INGREDIENTS (fills a cake-mold)

     250 ml    olive oil
     350 g     semolina
     600 g     sugar
     1 liter   water
               powdered cinnamon

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Dissolve the sugar in the water and bring it to  a
               boil.
          (2)  At the same time, brown the semolina in the oil on
               high heat, stirring continuously.
          (3)  When the semolina has taken a golden brown colour,
               add  the  syrup  into  it (taking care not to burn
               your hands), turn down the heat and keep  stirring
               until you get a kind of thick porridge.
          (4)  Pour into any kind of mold you  can  think  of  (a
               cake-mold  is  perfect  for  the  job), and let it
               cool.
          (5)  Unmold into a platter and sprinkle with  cinnamon.
               Slice  it using a wet knife, serve, and watch your
               weight go sky high!

NOTES

     You should be very careful during step  3,  as  the  browned
     semolina is extremely hot, and pouring water on it causes an
     eruption of scaldingly hot steam.
     You should not put this dessert in the refrigerator. It  can
     keep  for  a few days outside the refrigerator, assuming you
     can gather enough will power not to eat it all at once. Some
     oil  will  start to drain off after a day or so, but this is
     to be expected. Just make sure you don't leave  the  dessert
     on your favourite tablecloth!
     The recipe doubles, halves etc. nicely as long as  you  keep
     the proportion of the ingredients.
     I have seen variations on this dessert using any kind of fat
     imaginable, ranging from cooking fat to olive oil or butter,
     though I've only tried it with olive oil.

RATING

     Difficulty: easy.  Time: 15-20 minutes.  Precision:  Measure
     the  ingredients,  except for the sugar which you can adjust
     to taste.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Kriton Kyrimis
     Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
     princeton!kyrimis