Pumpkin Halwa

This is what I made for this Diwali. Diwali is the Indian festival of lights celebrated by wearing new clothes, lighting fire crackers and exchanging sweets back home. Usually my mom prepares this sweet with Ash gourd. But since I didn’t find it here, I wanted to try with the yellow pumpkin which is readily available during this time of the year and searched in the internet if it is allowed to use it to make this dish . To my surprise, it tasted equally great and love the colour of the dish. Traditional halwa uses khoa or khoya or mawa (milk that is cooked down so most the moisture is evaporated). This adds texture and richness to halwa. I used sweetened condensed milk to the recipe to thicken the halwa. Instead, you can also cook the grated pumpkin in milk and then fry in ghee till we get the required consistency.

Ingredients:

Pumpkin – 1 kg

Ghee- ½ cup

Sugar – 1 cup

Sweetened condensed milk – 50 ml

Cashew nuts – ¼ cup

Raisins – 2 Tbsp

Cardamom Powder – 1 tsp

Method:

·       Cut, deseed, peel and grate the pumpkin.

·       In a heavy bottom pan, add about 2 tbsp of ghee and fry the cashew nuts and raisins till golden brown and keep aside.

·      Add the remaining ghee to the pan and fry the grated pumpkin on medium heat till all the moisture is gone and the ghee oozes out.

·      Stir in the condensed milk and sugar, milk well and cook on low heat by constantly stirring (so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom and get burnt) till the milk is totally absorbed in and the ghee oozes out of the halwa.

·       Stir in the cardamom powder, mix well and remove from heat.

·       Garnish with fried cashews and raisins.

·       Serve hot or cold. It tastes great in either ways. It can also be refrigerated in a closed container for about a week and can be reheated before serving.