Jackfruit Halwa

More than two years into proper cooking and still I hadn’t tried out any sweet. Except for often making my favorite semiya payasa and jamoon using ready mix; and also being an assistant in making some other complex sweets. With the sweet tooth or teeth that I have, I started wondering why I hadn’t yet experimented with any sweet myself. May be because the folks at home do not like sweets as much as I do, or are not supposed to eat them. But how do I resist my temptation for a sweet....

One day at lunch table, while having nice and ripe jackfruit, V suggested a recipe of halwa out of jackfruit! ‘It’ll be heavenly’, was how she described her dish. I was initially apprehensive to try ANYTHING out of this wonderful fruit - because I simply love eating it and eating it as it is! Anyway, the recipe had been noted in my mind.

Coincidently, the same evening, there were guests at home for dinner, and I had to make some sweet for the dinner. So I just ventured out to try this newly learnt sweet, and it did take longer than I had expected. But I sure was worth the time spent, as it came out pretty nice. And the guests openly appreciated my halwa, and honored it by helping themselves with serving after serving, till the bowl was cleaned out! Even Dee who refuses any sweet did have it and compliment on it!

Now I make sure that I prepare this halwa every time we get home a jackfruit. I take out and save up a portion of the fruit for halwa before we start attacking the fruit from all directions to have our shares of the fruit.

Jackfruit Halwa

Preparation time : 10 min Cooking time : 25-30 min Serves : 4-5 Ingredients: Jackfruit deseeded - 2 cups Sugar - ¾ - 1 cup Ghee - 2 tbsp Cashew nuts - 12-15 Method: • Chop jackfruit into 1” pieces • Grind it into a paste in a mixie / food processor, without adding any extra water • In a thick bottomed pan, heat 2 tsp oil and fry the cashew nuts till golden brown, take out from ghee and keep aside till needed • Pour the remaining ghee into the pan and add the ground jackfruit paste • Mix in sugar and stir continuously for 15 minutes on low to medium flame • The ghee starts to separate out from the halwa when it is done • Switch off the flame and pour out the extra ghee separated out • Decorate with the fried cashews, serve hot or cold Variations: • Sugar can be substituted with jaggery • Mashed banana can also be added