Black Halwa (Karutha Haluva)

The original, most respected variety of Kozhikodan halwa: wheat starch cooked slowly with dark jaggery and coconut oil until nearly black, dense and glossy.

Black halwa - karutha haluva in Malayalam - is the benchmark variety of Kozhikodan halwa. Its near-black colour is earned, not dyed: dark jaggery cooked long and slow with settled wheat starch and coconut oil moves deep toward caramel-black, setting into the dense, glossy, elastic slab Calicut is famous for.

Because it contains no colouring, fruit or nuts to hide behind, black halwa is how Calicut buyers judge a halwa maker - if the karutha haluva is right, the rest of the shop can be trusted. It is sold cut from the slab in the shops of SM Street (Mittayi Theruvu) and by weight across Kozhikode.

Like all Kozhikodan halwa it keeps two to three weeks airtight at room temperature, which makes it a favourite in food parcels sent to Malayalis outside Kerala.