Raw Papaya Halwa

It was one such day when our family went to visit a new temple that was constructed in Mangalore. It was such a beautiful temple. More than the memories of the temple I have a memory of Papaya. Yes papaya we saw a backyard full of huge papayas but all were unripe. We managed to get 2 of them from the in-charge. Soon my Pachi(maasi/mom’s younger sister) decided that she will make halwa out of it and we made faces at her as we had never heard of it. But she was sure about making it. And my mom dad decided to keep it to ripen.

The next morning we got a box of Yummy halwa and we were all praising it to be similar to Kashi Halwa which is made of ash gourd. She even suggested us to do the same halwa. But my mom being her sister was sure to get it ripe ;). But unfortunately instead of the papaya getting ripe it went to trash and we ended up regretting for not listening to my pachi.

After that my mom has made this Raw Papaya Halwa many times and we have relished it.

Now being navaratri days I make sweets and offer to the God. When I was just thinking about what to make i remembered about the half papaya that was lying in the fridge and soon went into this Halwa.

Here is what we need :

Ingredients:

1 cup grated Raw Papaya(approx 200 gms of papaya or half of medium papaya)

1 ½ tbsp ghee

½ cup milk (optional)

¼ th cup sugar (add it according to your sweet resistance)

 1 teaspoon cardamom powder

Few saffron threads

1 tablespoon blanched almonds and finely chopped

 2 tablespoon broken cashew nuts and finely chopped

1 tbsp finely chopped pistachios

Method:

1. Firstly remove the skin and seeds of papaya and grate it.
2. Heat the ghee in a heavy bottom pan, add broken cashew nuts, fry it to golden brown, take it out and keep aside for later use.
3. In remaining ghee, add grated Papaya and sauté them for 4-5 minutes on medium low heat. Then add milk, stir and cook on medium heat till the moisture almost dries up. (When milk starts to boil, it will look as if its curdling. Don't panic or think you are wrong just keep stirring) 
4. Add sugar and mix well
5. Add saffron, cardamom powder, few cashew nuts. Mix well.
6. Garnish it with blanched almond, cashew nuts and pistachios.
7. Serve hot or chilled. Enjoy the way you like it!

Note

• Add sugar according to your taste. We like the sweets mild sweet so you can increase the amount of sugar if you like it a little more sweet.
• You can skip adding milk and add water instead but adding milk gives a richness and a nice flavour to the halwa.
• Make sure your papaya is firm and raw.
• Most of them add raisins too by frying them in little ghee but as i dont like raisins in my halwa and kheers i did not add. if you wish to add 1 tbsp of raisins frying them with cashewnuts.

God Bless all

Happy Navaratri
Happy Cooking,