A quick and easy sweet treat – this sweet can be served as a dessert for the family or in engagements and weddings too!!!
Bottle Gourd or Lauki or Doodhi or Sorraikai as it is known in Tamil, has numerous health benefits – It has loads of vitamins and minerals essential for the body.
It is high in Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin A, C and Folate.
It helps reduce blood pressure and promotes weight loss.
It also prevents fatigue and very low in fat and cholesterol as it contains 96% water – it helps balance liver function and aids in processing food efficiently for nutrition and assimilation!
Ingredients to serve 6 people
4 Cups Grated Bottle Gourd or Lauki or Dhoodhi
1 ½ Cups Sugar
1 Tsp Cardamom Powder
1- 2 Tbs Ghee (Optional)
(The ghee used to fry the cashew nuts is sufficient)
2 Tbs Cashew nuts (chopped)
Pinch Orange Flavouring (Optional)
Bottle Gourd Halwa
Preparation
Peel and Grate the veggie, drain the water if any and set aside
Melt one tablespoon of ghee in a large pan and fry the chopped cashew nuts
Remove from pan on to a plate
Add another two tablespoons of ghee, saute the drained grated bottle gourd for a 5-6 minutes till the raw smell disappears
Pour the sugar to the above mix
Stir through and cook for about 5 minutes on a medium flame till it starts to glisten
Add the food colouring and the remainder of the ghee
Stir it for a further 3-4 minutes till the mixture comes together.
(when it is semi solid in texture, remove from flame so it does not harden)
Garnish it with the fried cashew nuts and cardamom powder
Note: Ensure that water is fully drained after you grate the bottle gourd by squeezing the excess water out – generally there is not much
This would enable the halwa to be completed in less than 15 minutes!
See also https://www.cookingwithshobha.com/white-pumpkin-halwa/