Bottlegourd / Lauki / Sorakay Halwa

A sweet with a veggie... no way!!! that's what i was thinking about bottle gourd.. One of my friend made this halwa for a potluck.. It tasted so good.. i didn't believe that it was made from bottle gourd. There was absolutely no sign / flavour of bottle gourd in the sweet.. I got the recipe and tried it.. it was a instant hit...

Ingredients:

3 cups shredded bottle gourd
1 cup sugar (adjust to ur taste)
3 tbsp ghee
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
Raisins
few strands of saffron
green food color


Preparation:

Use fresh and tender bottle gourd. Peel the skin, de-seed them and grate
bottle gourd.

Heat a pan, add bottle gourd, a pinch of food color, saffron and sugar. Let
it cook in low flame. Bottle gourd releases more water so u don't have to add
water to the mixture. Cook till the mixture becomes transparent and all the
water is evaporated. At this stage, add 2 tbsp of ghee to the mixture and mix
thoroughly.


Mean while, heat the remaining ghee and fry raisins. The raisins will plump
once heated. Remove from heat. Transfer to bottle gourd mixture, add cardamom
powder and stir for couple of minutes. Remove from heat, serve hot or
cold...