14 day Countdown to 40 - Self-Indulgence #9

Halvah

This is a simple self-indulgence, after last night's decadence and another call out to a childhood memory.

When I was a little girl, my parents would take us down to explore the Byward Market in Ottawa every weekend.
I remember we would wander for what felt like hours around all the little shops and vendors booths, bringing home fresh pocket bread (giant pita pockets), deli meats, funny fruits (that's probably where I tasted my first pomegranate - hey they were exotic back in the 70s!!) and other tasty treasures.  I remember a magical combination of smells - from fresh flowers and fish, to bakery sweets and stinky cheeses...

My favourite memory of the culinary treasures we brought home from the market is of Halvah, and although it is often hard to find in small town grocery stores - it remains a favourite indulgence of mine... one that I try to remember to splurge on about once a year.

Halva is a type of sweet.  It is one of the worlds oldest candies, with the earliest references date as far back as the year 3000 B.C.   The word halvah means literally 'sweetmeat'.   There are tons of different types of halva served across North Africa, the Middle East and into Asia.  When I was in India many many years ago, they served a sweet called halwa that was quite gelatinous and NOT at all what I was expecting.  My favourite type is sesame based and originates in Turkey (I think).

Wonder of wonders I recently found Halva in the Nanton IGA's deli department, in fact they even had 2 different flavours - chocolate and vanilla!  Of course I bought both, and have been holding on to them for a special occasion...like today :)

To be honest, I have never been sure how to eat it properly - I don't know if it is supposed to be used as an ingredient in another recipe or if it should be served with something else.  I've always just cut mine into pieces and enjoyed it as is - sometimes with a tall glass of milk.

Ever the kitchen-experimenter, I just decided to search for a halvah recipe to see if i can make it on my own.  I think I found the perfect one on the Tasty Recipes Blog.  I'm going to bookmark it and try it out sometime -

Then when I'm feeling particularly bored and ambitious, I might try to take on something like the White Chocolate and Halvah Cheesecake recipe I just found on Godiva.com..... mmmmmmmmmmm it must be getting close to dinner time, clearly I'm hungry!!!!

Ok - on that note, I'm going to grab another slice of heaven... I mean Halva.

ttfn!
As Always, Dayna