Lauki Ka Halwa ~ Sorakaya Halwa

The light greenish, bottle shaped gourd known as lauki or doodhi in Hindi or sorakaya in Telugu is used in Indian kitchens to make dals (cooked with legumes), subjis and desserts.
This gourd which has a cooling effect on body, is used to make this delicious halwa. This is a very easy recipe and hard to mess up, if you use a non stick pot. It doesn't demand your attention till the final stages. So, cook on a low flame and attend to other things meanwhile. Just come and stir once a while, till all the water evaporates.

Ingredients:
Grated lauki / bottle gourd - 6 cups
Sugar - 2 cups
Ghee - 2 Tbsp & 1 tsp
Raisins & Cashews - 1 Tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Saffron - Few strands

Choose tender gourds. Peel the skins, remove the seeds and grate the bottle gourds. I used two bottle gourds and I got 6 cups of grated gourd.
Heat a pan and add bottle gourd and sugar to it. Let it cook on a low to medium flame. The sugar - gourd mixture releases more water. Let it be cooked till it becomes transparent and all the water evaporates. The mixture becomes one big mass. Add the ghee and fry for a few minutes more, till all the ghee is incorporated into the mixture.
Heat a tsp of ghee in a small pan and add raisins and cashews. Toast them till the cashews turn golden brown and raisins turn plump. Turn off the heat.
Add cashews, raisins, cardamom powder, saffron to the lauki mixture and stir properly.
Remove and serve warm or chilled.

Lauki Ka Halwa - My 'L' entry for Nupur's A - Z event.

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