Bene Israel Rice Pudding

For the Bene Israel, preparing for the fall holidays in India meant cooking massive amounts of luscious sweets. Two treats—halwa (a soft confection, different from the familiar Middle Eastern sesame seed variety) for Rosh Hashanah and sweet, filled pastries to break the Yom Kippur fast—were exchanged with relatives and friends, a custom reminiscent of mishlo’ah manot, the sending of portions on Purim. Because the Bene Israel, unlike other Jews in the Diaspora, never encount