Mango Sheera is a pudding made of semolina or suji or cream of wheat with sugar and flavored with mango and saffron. This Indian dessert is called Sheera in the southern part of India and Suji ka halwa in the northern part. In Karnataka it goes by the name of Rava (suji) Kesari. Mango sheera is a twist on this dessert with a flavor of mango in it using mango pulp. Normally, you would find sheera made just with suji, sugar and ghee with cardamom and sometimes flavored with pineapple (famous in Karnataka)
We had guests coming over for lunch and I wanted to make something simple and quick for dessert.
I had a lot of mango pulp lying in the refrigerator after making some mango ice cream. I had always had sheera with saffron and cardamom, so today I decided to try a mango flavored sheera and I was surprised how well it turned out!! Mango has always been one of my favorite fruits (after cherries of course!) so the flavor of it in sheera with a tinge of saffron aroma sounded good. I decided to omit the cardamom as I did not want the saffron flavor to be overpowered by the strong flavor of the cardamom.
I hope you all will try this and enjoy it as much as we did.
Golden Mango Sheera
Serves 4 to 6
1 cup suji or semolina or cream of wheat
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of ghee or clarified butter
½ cup mango puree
¾ cup sugar
2 cups water
Few saffron strands, soaked in 2 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons raisins
Almond slivers for garnishing
Method:
Grease a flat pan with ghee and set aside.
In a deep pan, heat the 1/2 cup of ghee. Add the raisins and fry till they plump up.
Add the semolina and fry on low flame till it is aromatic and turns light brown. Do not let it brown too much.
Meanwhile, keep the water for boiling. When the semolina is roasted, add the water and cook on low heat till it is well cooked. The water will be fully absorbed by the semolina.
Add the mango puree and mix well.
Pour in the sugar and mix continuously till the sugar melts and the whole mixture is lump free. Keep stirring well to avoid lumps. To this, add the saffron soaked milk and mix again.
Add about 2 tablespoons ghee and mix again. Keep stirring till it the halwa or sheera is fully cooked and starts to leave the sides of the pan.
Immediately, pour this mixture into the greased pan and level the top of the sheera with the bottom of a bowl, greased with ghee. Garnish with the almonds and slightly press into the sheera.
Cut into desired shapes and serve warm or cold.
Note:
The amount of mango pulp and ghee can be adjusted to your liking. I like this subtle flavor of mango so added only half a cup.
If the mango pulp is too sweet, reduce the amount of sugar to 1/2 cup.
If you like, you can add crushed cardamom to the sheera for the traditional flavor.
You can serve this sheera or pudding as such, without setting it in a pan.
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