Happy Tamil New Year 2016 to all my readers and blogger friends. Kasi halwa / vellai poosanikai halwa is one of the popular sweet recipes in Karnataka. It uses fewer ingredients and takes very less time to prepare.
Ingredients:
Serves 2 to 3
- 1 kg - Ash gourd / Poosanikai/ White pumpkin (1 cup – grated and squeezed)
- 3/4 to 1 cup – Sugar
- 1/8 tsp – Cardamom powder
- 2 pinches – Saffron
- 2 drops – Lemon juice
- 2 tbsp – Ghee
- 5 no’s – Cashew nuts
- 5 no’s – Raisin
- 1 pinch – Salt
Preparation method:
Grating and squeezing ash gourd:
- Remove the skin and seeds of ash gourd. Now grate it finely using small holes in the grated.
- Use a clean cotton towel or muslin cloth and squeeze out the excess liquid from the ash gourd completely. Keep the liquid separately and the dry pulp separately. For me, the liquid measured to 1 1/4 Cups and dry pulp measured to 1 Cup. Keep it aside.
Making of kasi halwa:
- Heat ghee in a pan, roast cashew nuts and raisins to a golden brown in color and set it aside.
- Transfer the liquid to a cooking pan and bring it to boil. Add ash gourd (dry pulp) to the boiling liquid and let it cook until all the liquid is evaporated.
- Now add the sugar and mix well. Reduce the flame to medium and continue to cook. After a minute, add the lemon drops and mix well.
- After few minutes, the mixture would again start boiling and bubbling up. At this stage add the saffron strands, cardamom powder and pinch of salt, mix well. Keep stirring continuously adding ghee in intervals to avoid drying.
- You will see the halwa becomes glossy, comes together and it no longer sticks to the bottom. This indicates that halwa is done (as shown in the picture). Add the cashews and raisins along with the ghee to the halwa. Switch off the flame and serve hot.
Notes:
- Keep all the ingredients ready before you start making halwa. Because you cannot move here and there while stirring.
- Always keep flame in medium heat.
- You should be very careful and stir it continuously otherwise the halwa get burnt and spoil your dish
- Add ghee as much you can because ghee makes the halwa more rich.
- You can adjust the quantity of sugar according to your taste.
- Lemon extract is added to stop the sugar from crystallizing.
- You may adjust the quantity of sugar according to the quantity of ash gourd after squeezing (dry pulp).
kasi halwa with oozing ghee.... is very tempting Shanthi. Hope you had a great New year celebration... my wishes to you & your family!
ReplyDeleteThank you mullai for your wishes..Hope you too had a great New year...
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