Monday 26 October 2015

PUMPKIN HALWA

PUMPKIN HALWA

#Edited- This post was featured as the best post at " Friday Free for all" on 6th November 2015. This can be viewed at Friday free for all link.

# Edited:- This post was featured as the best post for Real Food Friday, this can be viewed at Real Food Friday blog hop on 5th November 2015

Happy Halloween to all those celebrating.


When I was in Kenya, I lived with my husband in a remote area for one year, where there was only one big secondary school; it was a boarding school with hostels, a few residential settlements, a few shops and a post office outside the school. This boarding school had a population of around 500 plus students. There were teachers’ houses within that boarding school. We lived in a big house with a big kitchen garden at the back. To get Indian vegetables and grocery, we had to travel to 60 km far to a city of Kisumu.


In that kitchen garden, we had some fruit trees like banana and pawpaw (papaya) and many other tall trees which were found in that region. Kenya is a green country, in that climate, we get a lot of sunlight and rain throughout the year, which is suitable for the growth of so many agricultural products. Few papaya trees (4-5) in my kitchen garden, were very tall like coconut trees, maybe 15-20 feet tall. So the big problem was to get the fruits from those tall trees. I assume they were so tall because they must have been very old.


Many times, during school holidays or sometimes during weekends some young boys from the nearby villages, used to come and ask for piece jobs in the garden. And I used to give them the job to climb those trees to get fresh ripe and raw papaya; those boys were really expert climbers. They would help bring down baskets and baskets of papaya, some raw, some about to ripe, and some ready to eat, and that means a lot of papayas. Then the next job was to distribute those papayas to friends in surrounding areas before they got rotten because surely I couldn’t use up all of them. I have tried and tested many recipes with that raw papaya. Raw papaya skin is very hard to peel and inside the flesh is also very hard like that of a pumpkin. Though the inside flesh is white which is unlike of a pumpkin.


So for this pumpkin halwa recipe, I am using the same recipe and method as I used in papaya halwa, except instead of papaya, I’m using pumpkin. When I tried it for the first time, it came out super nice, plus the colour was also very nice and appealing without adding any artificial food colour. The other surprising thing about this recipe has very few ingredients.


This is the season of pumpkins and Halloween here in Canada, and all the shops are filled with many different sizes of pumpkin- from very small to very large. In North America when people celebrate Halloween, a lot of pumpkin carving is done to make jack-o-lanterns and decorate in front of their houses. Even in schools, kids are taught to do pumpkin carving, as my grandson is taking a big pumpkin to school to carve it tomorrow.


RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

  • One small pumpkin around 400 grams
  • 100 grams sugar (or more to taste)
  • 4 tbs ghee (clarified butter) OR unsalted butter.
  • 50 grams sliced almonds or any other nuts
  • 50 grams raisin (optional)
  • ½ tsp cardamom/nutmeg or cinnamon powder

METHOD

  • Peel, wash and slice the pumpkin into small pieces, then boil it in a pot, adding the small amount of water at the bottom of the pot. ( I used pressure cooker, which took only 3 minutes after the whistle)
  • Mash the pumpkin pieces with the potato masher.
  • Heat ghee in a fry pan or wok, when hot, add mashed pumpkin and cook for 5 minutes.
  • Add sugar and again cook for some time till the water melting from the sugar disappears, stirring occasionally.
  • Add nuts and cardamom powder, and serve hot as a dessert.


67 comments:

  1. What a delicious looking halwa..Really worth the try

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  2. lovely photos. Love the Halloween decor, the pumpkin with the extra long stalk and the mat.... so Kenyan. I will try making the halwa with pumpkin. The colour of the halwa makes it so tempting.

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    1. Thanks Mayuri, yes I am still missing Kenya, what a beautiful country.

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  3. drooling :-) Looks so delicious!

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  4. This sounds delicious. I love the Halwa made with carrots, and this looks akin to that, though this sounds a lot healthier than the carrot version I've tried which was made with cream.

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    1. Thanks Angela, ya this one is healthier compared to the cream one.

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  5. Wow a great recipe to treat Halloween ... Halwa with pumpkin, that's so creative..

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  6. This sounds lovely! A great and different way to use up pumpkin. Thank you for sharing #CookBlogShare x

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  7. Halwa looks very delicious...perfect Halloween treat:)

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  8. I love to use pumpkin in recipes as the color is always so bright as in your recipe. Looks delicious...

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  9. Ooh, I never thought of using pumpkin in halwa - looks yummy! #cookblogshare

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  10. Wish i could have had it now :) It looks so fresh...i am sure you must be missing Kenya now!

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  11. Hi Sadhna,
    This sounds and looks delicious. I love your pictures too. Thanks for sharing on Real Food Fridays. Pinned & tweeted.

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  12. We don't celebrate Halloween, but we LOVE halwa :)
    This is an interesting version. Looks very tasty!!

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  13. Mmmm this sounds delicious, and what a great idea for using up all of the pumpkin leftover from Halloween.

    Thanks for joining #FoodYearLinkup x

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  14. How delicious! Added to the list of things to make,

    Thank you for sharing with #CreditCrunchMunch

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  15. I had to google Halwa as I wasn't sure if this was like a chutney to serve with a dish but now realise it is a dessert - I hope that's right! A great way to use up pumpkin and with the addition of those spices I bet this is will really warm you up on cold autumn nights;-) Thank you for entering #CreditCrunchMunch;-)

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    1. Yes, you are right Camilla, halwa is a dessert and this one is really tasty.

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  16. This looks great!!! Thank you for linking up to Creative K Kids' Tasty Tuesdays Linky Party. I have pinned your recipe to our Tasty Tuesday's Pinterest Board

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    1. Thanks very much for pinning my recipe on Tasty Tuesday Pinterest Board.

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  17. What an interesting combination! I bet that smells delish. Thanks for sharing and linking up with us for Meatless Monday

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  18. Pumpkin halwa looks delicious, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop, pinning and tweeting.

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    1. Thanks Swathi for your comment and for pinning and tweeting.

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  19. i was at an indian restaurant recently and they had pumpkin halwa...so good. i need to try this recipe soon.

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    1. Thanks Dixya, good to know it was served in a Restaurant.

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  20. Sadhna, you have had such a wonderfully interesting life! I love hearing your stories. How cool to watch the boys climb up to get the fruit! You always have the coolest stories, I love listening to people like you tell of their lives. The pumpkin halwa sounds really delicious, a nice taste of fall! Hope you're enjoying the fall, it was 73 degrees here today, in Indiana! Love it!

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    1. Aww, so nice of you Nikki for such a lovely comment. yes i am enjoying fall, while winter is knocking the door.

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  21. What a flavorful dish, we would really enjoy this recipe. Thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and have a great day!
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

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  22. What a great Pumpkin Recipe!! Thanks for sharing on My 2 Favorite Things on Thursday!! Hope to see you again this week!! Pinned!

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  23. Hi Sadhna,
    Just a note to let you know that I chosen your post as one of my features for this weeks Real Food Fridays blog hop that goes live every Thursday @ 7pm EST. Thank you for sharing your information and being part of Real Food Fridays mission to make this world a little bit healthier every week.

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    1. Wow, that's very good Marla, thanks very much, I will come and check and mention it on my blog post.

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  24. I'm off to buy a pumpkin to try this recipe right now :-) Sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing with #frifree4all. Hope to see you at the next #frifree4all as it goes live tomorrow.....

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  25. I love all kinds of halwa! This is perfect for the pumpkins I have at home! Thanks for sharing.

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  26. I love all thing pumpkin this sounds delicious, I bet it was good with papaya too! Thanks for sharing at What'd You Do This Weekend?!

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    1. Yes Joy, papaya one also tastes good.Thanks for your comment.

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  27. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your life in Kenya. What a nice idea to adapt your papaya recipe to pumpkin! It sounds delectable. I am delighted that you shared your healthy and delicious Pumpkin Halwa recipe with us on the Healthy Happy Green and Natural Party Blog Hop. I appreciate it and I can't wait to try your recipe. I'm pinning and sharing.

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    1. Thanks Deborah for your lovely comment and for pinning and sharing.

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  28. looking yummy. I will try this recipe with organic pumpkin to make it more healthy.

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  29. This is very interesting recipe. It looks yummy! Thank you for sharing it with us #pintorials

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  30. I've never tried it, but it sounds amazing!

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  31. Thanks very much Jayanta for your visit and the comment.

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  32. Mmmmmm Sadhna, both the papaya and pumpkin halwa's sound good. I've only ever tried the pineapple version though.I think they added semolina (does that sound right), and it was soooo refreshing. A perfect desert.

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    1. Hi Michelle, thanks very much for your comment dear. Wow the pineapple one with semolina sounds great. I should try that one, give me the recipe of that.

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  33. It sounds very good...almost like a pumpkin pie recipe. Not many ingredients is also a big plus with me! It looks attractive as a dish too.

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