Rava Halva with Bananas

# of servings:  8-10
Preparation Time:  10 mins	Cook Time:  20 mins

Very popular halva made as prasaadam (offering to the Lord) during poojas.  Different flavor additions will give tremendously different outcomes.  Each is so delicious that it leaves everyone wanting more!  

Ingredients:

• Rava - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Salt - 2 pinches
• Very-ripe bananas - 4
• Milk - 3 cups (optional, can use vegan milk or substitute with water fully)
• Water - 1 cups
• Cardamom - 5 pods
• Cloves - 3
• Mace flower - 0.25 tsp (optional) 
• Saffron strands - 3 pinches (optional)
• Raw camphor - 1 pinch (optional) 
• Cashews - 12
• Silted almonds - 2 tbsp
• Ghee - 3 tbsp

Method:

• Break the cashews into smaller pieces, as per preference
• Powder the cardamom pods, cloves, mace flower and saffron strands (if using) into a coarse powder
• Take milk a vessel and mix the powdered spices
• Bring it to boil on low heat ('Steam' mode for 1 min in IP)
• In another vessel, heat the ghee ('Saute' mode in IP)
• Add the broken cashews and saute
• When they start changing color, add the silted almonds and saute
• After a minute, add the rava and roast  
• Roast till rava starts to look shiny and releases oil
• Add the boiled, spiced milk to the rava along with stirring continuously
• Heat the water and add it to the rava, along with a pinch of salt and raw camphor (if using)
• Mix well until the rava is cooked and starts looking shiny
• Add the sugar and mix well till the sugar dissolves and the halva looks shiny again
• Mash the ripe bananas with a fork and add it to the rava
• Turn off the heat when everything has incorporated and cooked well
• Add a couple dollops of ghee on top and mix well
• Serve hot or at room temperature, as per preference

Tips and Tricks:

• Roasting rava till it releases oil makes the halva tastier with lesser ghee
• Cooking the spices while boiling milk will make the halva more flavorful
• If white sugar is used, the halva will look more yellowish with the saffron.  Brown turbinado sugar makes the halva more brownish.  Eliminating the saffron strands and using white sugar gives the popular white halva
• Mashing the bananas with the fork will break the bananas into tiny lumps that incorporate well, yet impart flavor in chunks

Pictures: 

Final Outcome: