Yellow Pumpkin Halwa

When I happened to have an excellently flavored and tastier sweet dish, I wondered what it was made from and came to know that it was from Pumpkin and called as Pumpkin Halwa.

My search for the recipe to make this dish got me this wonderful site at the following link :

http://www.kitchensecretsandsnippets.com/2013/05/yellow-pumpkin-halwa.html

This is my step-by-step instructable on reproducing the Yellow Pumpkin Halwa from the above recipe. Here are the images of my  recipe with reference to the one mentioned in the link above.

For this recipe, I need about half a kilogram of raw yellow pumpkin. What I got in the market weighed more than one kilogram. So, take about half a kilogram of pumpkin, clean it by removing the skin, seeds and also the husk covering the seeds.

Dice the cleaned pumpkin into approximately one inch sized cubes.

Other Ingredients required for half a kilogram of Pumpkin

• One cup of Ghee (clarified butter)
• One cup of Sugar
• One cup of Milk
• Handful of Raisins
• Handful of Cashew nuts
• About half a teaspoon of Cardamom powder
• About a pinch of Orange-red food color (Optional)

Using a mixer-grinder, grate the pumpkin cubes and keep it aside

In a frying fan, add a teaspoon of ghee and stir fry the cashew nuts and raisins together in medium heat. Remove from the frying fan when the cashew nuts are golden brown and raisins fully puffed up and keep it aside.

Now in the same pan, add few teaspoons of ghee and saute the grated pumpkin in low flame. Slowly add milk and saute for about ten minutes or till the pumpkin lost its raw smell by adding a teaspoon of ghee at regular intervals from the cup.

When the pumpkin is fully cooked, add a cup of sugar and mix well. Keep it in low flame and keep on stirring continuously, adding a teaspoon of ghee now and then.

Continue cooking until the halwa reduces into a deep amber and glossy mixture. After a while, the mixture will not stick and comes out clean from the pan.

Now add the Cardamom powder. Add the food color, mixed in a little amount of milk, to the pan and stir well. Add the fried cashew nuts & raisins, mix well and reduce flame.

Lightly apply ghee to a container and transfer the cooked halwa from the frying pan to the container.

Serve hot and enjoy the delicious sweet dish made from Pumpkin...