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Halvah: International Candy of Happiness! You can find it in Jewish cuisine, South American cuisine, Polish cuisine…name me a country and I bet they’ve got their own version of halvah. Why? Probably because it’s the best-tasting and easiest candy to make. At Dirt Candy I make a sesame-carrot  halvah that’s a bit like crack: it comes in an easy-to-bottle “rock” form and in the kitchen we eat it compulsively. I don’t think it has much street value, though, although I might bottle some up and send an intern over to Washington Square Park to see what they can get for it. At Dirt Candy, it’s part of the  Barbecued Rainbow Carrot Buns, and it’s used to carry the sesame and carrot flavor into the cucumber, ginger and white carrot salad.

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The filling of the carrot buns contains sesame, so rather than doing something boring like sprinkling sesame seeds on the salad, I figured out how to make halvah with sesame and carrot juice. It’s these details that drive my staff crazy, but I think they make all the difference. When you’re eating a dish and this much attention goes into the little things I think you can sense it on some subconscious level and it makes the dish feel more rounded and complete. Or that’s the hope, anyways. I could be deluding myself, no one may be noticing, and the only thing this might be doing is over-working my staff.
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This halvah is really non-traditional, but it’s totally addictive and I find myself eating it by the handful at work. How is it made? A lot of work.

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There’s a lot of kneading…

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…followed by a lot of stirring…

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…a lot more stirring…

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…and, finally, halvah!

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