Pumpkin Halwa/ deepavalicelebrations.net

Halwa is a sweet dish often associated with the Deepavali Festival. This is a festival where Hindus of all ages participate in festivities that give expression to their happiness by lighting earthern diyas, decorating their houses, lighting fire cracker and inviting near and dear ones to their homes. The lighting of lamps is a way of paying obeisance to God for attainment of health, wealth, knowledge, peace, valour and fame... The word, Halwa is an Arabic word meaning sweetmeat. It is a typical North Indian dish with variations available in Middle East, Balkans and Mediterranean. The website says that the most common vegetables used are carrots, pumpkins and bottle gourds. The vegetables are peeled, scraped, grated coarsely. then cooked in water or milk until tender, then fried in Ghee. Apparently, it is not uncommon to find Halva sold as a packaged candy in some Jewish Stores in the U.S. .

Ingredients:
Grated Pumpkin – 2 ½ cups Milk – ½ cup
Sugar – ½ cup
Honey – 1 cup Cardamon – 5 Cashew nuts – 10
Ghee – l/4 cup
Directions:
1. Roast the cashers in ghee until it becomes golden brown
2. In a pan, heat 1 tsp. ghee, add the grated pumpkin to it and stir well over low flame till the raw flavor is gone.
3. To this, add milk and cook till the pumpkin is tender. Add sugar, honey, stirring constantly with low flame.
4. Add roasted cashers and ground cardamom. Mix well and leave it for 5 minutes
5. Add 3 tsp ghee and stir well. Put on low flame till ghee floats. Serve hot.

This is a new dish for me but it is now on my to do list. If anyone makes Halwa for the Deepavali Day celebrations, please e-mail us. We will be delighted to add your comments to this recipe on our Website.