Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

It is the month of Halloween and you find pumpkins all over.

You can make jam and halwa (a sweet dish) with pumpkins, which takes only 10 minutes.

Here go the recipes:

For the Jam – Ingredients:

Grated pumpkin                                5  cups

Sugar                                                3 cups

Cooking Butter                                  1 tbsp           

citric acid                                           1/2 tsp

Raspberry or vanilla essence             4 drops

Preparation:

Cut pumpkin into tiny pieces orgrate, after seeding and removing the spongy pith in the centre.

Steam cook the pumpkin to a soft consistency. You can also boil and cook, but the colour of the jam gets brownish this way.

Mash the cooked pumpkin well.

Take a non stick, heavy bottomed pan and fry the butter and pumpkin till the water in the pulp gets evaporated.(approximately 2mts)

Add sugar and citric acid, mix well and cover it with a lid. Keep cooking over a low flame till the jam thickens.

Turn the burner off, add the essence and mix well.

Cool, store in a container and refrigerate. This preserves for a week.

For the halwa – Ingredients: 

Grated pumpkin                           5 cups

Sugar                                           2 cups

Cooking butter                             1 tbsp

Ghee (clarified butter)                  1/2 cup

condensed milk                            50 ml  (plain milk can also be used, but the dish takes longer to make)

      Or

Plain milk                                      100 ml

Powdered cardamoms                  1/2 tsp

Almonds and cashew nuts and raisins   1/4 cup

Preparation:

Steam cook the pumpkin in a pressure cooker, to a soft consistency.

In a heavy bottomed, non stick pan fry the cooked pumpkin with butter, till the water gets evaporated.

Add condesed milk (or plain milk), cook till it thickens. 

Add sugar and cook, covering with a lid, on a low flame.

When it gets to a jam consistency, switch off the stove.

Add ghee and the cardamom powder and mix well.

Fry the nuts in ghee to a golden brown. switch off the stove and add the raisins.

Add this to the halwa. Halwa is to be eaten hot.