Mom's Secret Recipe: Bottle Gourd Halwa
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Why I Love This Recipe
This recipe is from my mom. Halwa is a very simple, delicious, quick dessert made in India. It's usually made with semolina or carrots. My mom knew this recipe from her mother, and it's my favorite halwa of all. When I was a kid, I used to ask her once in a while to make that "green halwa" as green is my favorite color and I loved the taste and jelly-like texture of this halwa. The Bottle gourd gives a soft pulpy texture after it's cooked. I'm sharing this recipe today from my food blog: http://findmypassions.blogspot.com/2014/10/bottle-gourd-halwa.html
Ingredients You'll Need
1 Bottle gourd
1 and a 1/2 Tablespoons of ghee
1 cup of sugar and additional, if desired
1 Tablespoon of raisins
1 Tablespoon of sliced almonds
2-3 cloves of cardamom pounded
Directions
Peel the skin of bottle gourd, cut off the ends.
Remove the soft core and seeds of the gourd, so that only the hard part is left out. Easy way to do this is to scrape it out using knife or peeler.
Grate the rest of the bottle gourd, comes to around 2 cups.
Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee and fry the raisins and almonds until they turn light brown color, remove them and keep them aside.
Fry the grated gourd in the same ghee, in a wide pan. Maintain heat little higher than medium heat. After about 5-6 mins, water will ooze out of the grated gourd and raw smell will gradually change to cooked smell. The gourd also will change from white to translucent green color.
When the water (which oozed out from the gourd) dries out, add the sugar, stir it in.
Cook for another 5 mins and add the remaining ghee. Cook for another 7-9 mins, or until the halwa becomes thick and sugar is dissolved completely.
Add the fried raisins and almonds, and the pounded cardamom and stir them in. Turn off the heat.
Remove the halwa from pan and stuff it in a small bowl. Let it set for sometime.
I used strawberries as a garnish, for the color contrast and also freshness to the plate.
Place the set halwa and strawberry garnish to serve.