Sev Barfi or Singhar Ji Mithai

गुढी पाडव्याच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्या !

Does it matter if I post a Sindhi sweet recipe on a Marathi New year? Would it taste different if I tell you I made it in Diwali and am posting it now? 

No, naa. Then here is the recipe. You have one more sweet recipe to try at home.

Since I spent the first few years of my life in Colaba where besides the Kolis the Sindhis have their base, I grew up feasting on a lot of sweets from the famed Sindhi Mithaiwalas, whether it was Kailash Parbat or Chandu halwai. Then 20 years later Jhama's had us swearing with the hot samosas, juicy jelabis and a lot lot more. The sev barfi was brought home as an odd time treat, never for the religious rituals or naivedya. For the naivedya it has to be pure milk based sweets and this sev barfi had chana atta in the form of sev so was meant only for human consumption.

I don't know what made me think I cannot make it at home. Then I chanced on Alka Keswani's Sindhi Rasoi it sounded so easy so how could I not give it a try. During Diwali I was visiting friends when I made it as gifts for them and packed it into pretty boxes. It definitely is an uncommon sweet and people love the little surprise of a sweet made from sev. 

The key to making it successfully is laying your hands on Feeka sev! That's salt free Sev. The sev is usually savoury snack or topping that goes on the chaats but for this sweet the regular sev will not work.

Again I got lucky to  get Feeka Sev at Jhama's itself and I bought it on stealth lest my Dad who was with me asked me to dump it and buy the ready made Singhar Ji Mithai instead. That would have been easier but a blogger never takes it easy when it comes to food gifts, what say?

So there I was loaded with a kg of Sev and I mean that's a lot. I was home and in the kitchen boiling sugar syrup to make my own Sev barfi. I doubled the quantities as I need a large batch to be given to 3 families. I used vanilla and dropped the food color. My barfi was richer with more mawa.

Ingredients

500 gms Feeka Sev

750 gms mawa

500gms sugar

3 cups water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cashews and almonds for decoration
5-6 cardamoms peeled, seeds separated

In a saucepan measure out the water and add sugar to it. Boil it till sugar dissolves. Add the vanilla extract.

Keep a greased tray ready.

Add the sev to it and stir to mix. Break the mawa into chunks but don't crumble it. Add it into the sev and sugar mix. Stir to even out. 

Transfer the mix into the tray. Level it out. Score the barfi. 

Chop the almonds and split the cashews, decorate as shown or just the way you like. Sprinkle the separated cardamom seeds over the top.

I do not use Varakh or silver foil. Its a choice I make, here is why?