Kasi Halwa Recipe – Vella Poosanikai Halwa – Easy Diwali Sweets Recipe

Kasi Halwa (Vellai Poosanikai Halwa in Tamil,Ash Gourd Halwa /Winter Melon Halwa in English, Boodida Gummaikaya Halwa in Telugu, Kumbalanga Halwa in Malayalam, Kushmandha halwa, காசி அல்வா /  பூசணிக்காய் அல்வா / Kalyana Poosani Halwa ) is one of the most popular sweet recipes which is served in Brahmin weddings. I had tasted this only once and that too years ago in a marriage. So all I remember is its yellow color ( some make in red color), glossy & ghee dripping texture. 

Recently I watched this halwa preparation in Samayal Samayal with Venkatesh Bhat in Vijay TV. The way he explained fascinated me to prepare Kashi halwa at home during this Diwali. But I slightly tweaked his recipe & method of cooking.I made this halwa for my guest yesterday. It came out very well.According to me Kasi halwa aka Vellai poosanikai halwa is purely a beginners sweet. You don’t need any expertise to make this. 

The beauty of this ash gourd halwa is it requires less ghee and cooking time is also less when compared with Tirunelveli Godhumai halwa & Thiruvarur Ashoka halwa. So anyone can make it easily without fear. But I felt the pre preparatory works like slicing the skin, removing the seeds, chopping the inner part, grating & squeezing the water Huuuuhhh!!, took more time than preparation. 

Once you finish this tiresome job, your halwa will be ready in the next 15 minutes. But all this pain will vanish as soon as you see & taste this ghee dripping halwa. I clicked the pictures by removing the hot halwa directly to banana leaf. So you could find the ghee oozing out of the halwa. Ok,enough of boring stories,lets see how to make this easy, yummy Kasi Halwa recipe in detail ! Bookmark this easy sweet recipe for this Diwali 2015 and enjoy with your Kith and Kin ! 

Kasi Halwa Recipe

Kasi Halwa / Poosanikai Halwa – Easy Diwali Sweets

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Sweet

Serves: Serves 2-3

Prep time: 20 Minutes

Cook time: 15 Minutes

Total time: 35 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 cup – 250ml Grated Ash gourd / Vellai poosanikai – 2 cups Sugar – 3/4 to 1 cup Ghee – 2 tbsp (  4 to 5 tbsp for more ghee) Cardamom – 2 nos Edible camphor – a pinch (optional) Cashew nuts – few Saffron threads – few

METHOD

Wash and remove a big piece of ash gourd from the whole vegetable. Remove the middle soft portion along with seeds. Then peel the skin and discard it. Grate the ash gourd and keep in a plate.  Take a muslin cloth or thin cloth and squeeze the grated ash gourd well using your hands. Collect the water in a bowl. We should use in the next step. Measure the squeezed ash gourd and take equal amount of sugar. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a kadai and roast the nuts. Take in a plate. Put the squeezed ash gourd and saute it for 3-4 minutes in medium flame. Now add the reserved ash gourd water and cook it in low flame by covering the kadai with a lid. Add 1/2 – 1 cup more water if needed. The vegetable should cook well else you will get raw smell in the halwa. So cook it properly. You can do this process in cooker too. After the veggie is cooked well and all the water is absorbed, add sugar. Mix well and add few saffron threads, a pinch of yellow food color optionally. Mix well. The mixture will become goey. As you mix, it will thicken and start to leave the sides of the pan.When it starts to become thick and leave the sides of kadai, add the remaining 1 tbsp of ghee, edible camphor (optional) and cardamom powder. Stir well and remove in a bowl. Initially the halwa looks goey as shown in the above pictures but it thickens as it cools down. Over cooking make the halwa hard and chewy.  Enjoy eating hot and serve it warm as per your choice. Alternatively, you can add more ghee at regular intervals and stir till halwa absorbs the ghee. Then keep mixing till the ghee is started to release in the sides and halwa thickens. Switch off the flame and remove the halwa. It tastes more rich.

Note

You can add 4-5 tbsp of ghee to the maximum, keep mixing and wait for the halwa to ooze out all the ghee. It will be even more rich. But this method consumes very little ghee. The ghee you find in the pictures is the one I added before removing from the flame. I felt 2 tbsp itself is more for this halwa. You can replace yellow food color with red food color or more saffron threads to bring the natural color. 1:1 is the ratio of grated ash gourd and sugar. For more sweetness, you can use 1:1.25 cups. Do not add more edible camphor. Its smell may become dominant in the sweet.