Moong Dal Halwa for Indian Cooking Challenge

For this month's Indian Cooking Challenge Srivalli chose Moong Dal Halwa. I was skeptical in the beginning as I have never ventured making halwas of any kind and have never eaten any halwa made with dal. I however gathered up the courage and prepared this delicious halwa according to Simran and Lata's recipe.

I especially loved the color of the halwa. Since I did not have kova, I tried the second recipe suggested. Here is the recipe as given by Valli.

Ingredients
Split (Yellow) Moong dhal - 1 cup
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cups
Milk - 1/2 cup
Cashews/ raisins roasted in ghee for garnish.

Directions

Soak 1 cup moong dal overnight. Next morning, grind to a paste.

Heat a heavy Kadai, take initially only 1/2 of the ghee and heat it.

Add the dhal and stir continuously, not allowing lumps to form. This part is very tricky as the dhal cooks really fast, irrespective of the ghee.

Keep the heat at the lowest and keep stirring even after the dhal becomes thick.

Add the rest of the ghee intermittently and cook the dhal until aromatic and the ghee starts oozing out.

Meanwhile mix the sugar with water/ milk in a pan and bring to a boil. Add this slowly to the cooking dhal.

Keep the fir low at all times and break lumps if formed while adding the sugar and water/ milk mix.

Cook until the ghee surfaces.

Garnish with cashews and raisins.

Notes
Use a thick bottom pan or better nonstick pan.
Don't leave the halwa unattended. The dal can stick and it can go from just done to burnt in a second so keep stirring as much as possible. You should remember to keep stirring to prevent dhal from sticking irrespective of the ghee added.
You aren't looking for the halwa to get too thick when you turn off the heat. It was thicken as it cools.
Cook until ghee surfaces on the sides and the halwa attains a very nice shine.
Initially, it may appear that all the ghee is being used up. But as the dhal cooks the ghee separates. So the ghee measure is sufficient.
In both recipes depending on how you got the moong dal paste, you may require slightly more ghee to get the texture.