KASI HALWA / PUMPKIN/ ASHGUARD HALWA

Hi All ,

Kasi halwa / White pumkin / ashguard halwa is a unique dessert which is a part of every marriage in our family. Mostly during marriages that afternoon followed by muhurtham we serve this halwa for dessert. That warm, silky, colourful, melt to mouth halwa will be out of world.

Normally we serve in banana leaf , the colour combo for green banana leaf and this red halwa will be just amazing and definitely you will carve for more. Im missing all those good old days.

Halwa is easy to make , all you need to little more ghee/ oil and continues stirring, rest of the job is easy and you can make it in no time.

Though halwa is easy to make and yummy to eat, but kasi halwa I never tried as im not sure about pumpkin cooking. Due to lock down I brought a big sized pumpkin and my family don’t want any curry from it. SO thought of giving a try with halwa and it came out to be too perfect. Also for colour I don’t want to use any colour powder so I used a little bit of beetroot puree to bring this wonderful bright red colour.

Here comes the yummy recipe of traditional kasi halwa,

COOKING TIME : 45 MINS.

SERVINGS : 3 members.

INGREDIENTS :

Pumpkin – 3 cups.

Sugar – ½  cup to ¾ cup.

Saffron – ¼ tsp

Ghee – 3 tblsp.

Cashew – 15 nos

Pumpkin seeds – 1 tblsp (dried)

Cardamom – 4 nos ( powder them).

Beetroot juice – 2 tsp ( see notes for juice recipe).

METHOD :

1)  Cut the outer skin completely and remove seeds, grate the pumpkin finely.

2)  Fry cashew , pumpkin seeds in 1 tsp ghee and keep it aside.

3)  In a pan add grated pumpkin and cook until the water evaporates, the water content in pumpkin is enough for it to cook.

 4)  Once the pumpkin becomes dry , add sugar and boil till it thickens, entire process has to be done in low or medium flame.

 5)  Now add ghee 1 tblsp , saffron,beetroot juice, cardamom powder and keep stirring.

 6)  After 5 mins add balance ghee,fried nuts and keep stirring until ghee oozes out.

 7)  When the halwa comes to a silky mass with ghee on sides, when taken in ladle the halwa must not stick to ladle it must flow down like silk.

8)  Now remove from flame and serve hot.

 NOTES :

1)  You can increase ghee level to 1 tblsp more.

2)  We don’t like dominating sweet taste you can increase the sweetness to ¼ cup more.

3)  For beetroot puree, grate beetroot 3 tblsp, mix it with 2 tblsp of water, stain the beetroot and take only the juice, add 3 drops of lemon juice to beetroot juice and use it.

4)  Adding lime juice to beetroot juice helps in maintaining the bright red colour of beetroot else beetroot has a tend to change the colour to pale pink while cooking.

Happy cooking!!!