Halloween Special- Pumpkin Halwa

Halloween- never really gave a thought when I was in India.But with all the costumes and Ads one can not miss it in the US. And with the many visual treats comes Pumpkin- Orangy to the core. So I bought a small pumpkin to give a treat. But sadly it was lying in the fridge until last week when we invited few friends for dinner. So I made this Pumpkin halwa, purely my mom's recipe :)

Ingredients

• Pumpkin - 1 
• Carrot    - 1 
• Moong dal - 2-3 tbsp
• Condensed milk - 1/4 cup
• Cashews/walnuts - as required.
• Sugar - as required
• Ghee - you need this a hell lot

Method

• Pressure cook the dal so that it is completely mashed. Do not over do the water.
• Cut the pumpkin and carrots into large pieces and pressure cook them until mashed like the dal. Care should be taken to use minimal water. (Incase you do the mistake of using excess water, do not panic, just drain the water only at the cost of some nutrient loss)
• Mash the veggies with a spatula , add the dal &milkmaid . Then blend completely. You can use a blender if required.
• Take a kadai or a non stick pan and add the ingredients.
• Now comes the task of stirring it.
• You need to really stir it continously adding few spoons of Ghee and sugar in between.
• Take care regarding the amount of Sugar if you are using sweetened condensed milk.
• Do the wholoe process in a medium heat so that even if u take a little rest in between (like me ;) ), it will not burn the halwa.
• Dont worry if the colour is white or pale yellow, you need little patience
• After nearly 20 minutes, the color and texture will change and you will know when it is done.
• Once it reaches the halwa concentration check for sweetness.
• You can add sugar even after it is done and stir. Thats the advantage in this method :)
• Finally Garnish it with fried cashews and enjoy the treat.

Note: You can store this in fridge and microwave later to have it hot. Adding carrots is for color and mass, you can ignore if needed.