Kashi Halwa

This is a simple sweet made from a very healthy vegetable - the white pumpkin. In Ayurveda, the ancient system of healing in India, pumpkin occupies a very special place of prominence. By drinking the juice of pumpkin on an empty stomach in the morning, joint pains can be alleviated.

Ingredients:

White pumpkin grated 2 cups.
Sugar 1 cup.
Kesar or Lemon Yellow Colour a pinch

Saffron strands soaked in a tablespoon of milk; a few.

Ghee 2 tablespoons.
Almonds and cashew nuts chopped into small pieces 2 tablespoons.

Method:

1. Pressure cook the grated pumpkin till one whistle. Do not add water to the pumpkin.
2. Allow it to cool. Then squeeze out the water from the pumpkin and keep aside.
3. Measure the squeezed out pulp. It it is 2 cups, take exactly 1/2 the quantity i.e. 1 cup of sugar.
4. Add the sugar to the squeeze out water and place on medium flame in a heavy bottomed kadai.
5. Once the sugar has melted, add the squeezed pumpkin into the kadai.
6. Cook on slow fire till halwa consistency is reached. Keep stirring in between.
7. Add the colour when the pumpkin is 3/4th cooked.
8. The halwa is done when it starts sticking to the vessel.
9. Now add the ghee and mix well. Also add the saffron strands soaked in milk.
10. Switch off the stove. Add cardamom powder and the fried nuts. Mix well. Serve hot or cold.

Variation: 1/4 cup of crumbled koa can be added when the pumpkin is 3/4 cooked.