Coconut Pumpkin Halwa/ Pumpkin Dessert- Mathanga Varattiyathu

Fall is the perfect time to enjoy your favorite pumpkin recipes. We have been enjoying it this season in several ways, making pumpkin bread, muffins ,pies, and pancakes. Are you looking for dessert ideas with pumpkin? Then why not try a delicious halwa. The recipe I am sharing today is a sweet delicacy, a rustic confectionery from Kerala. It is one of the many traditional forgotten sweets of Kerala made with simple, locally available ingredients. Rice and coconut are a staple in all traditional Kerala snacks and sweets. The sweetener can be regular sugar or jaggery. It is gently laced with the flavor of cardamom and ghee/clarified butter. Pumpkins are in season, and there is no better time to try this recipe.

Making chakka vilayichathu/ Jack fruit preserve was a yearly tradition back home in Kerala. Vilayichathu/ Varattiyathu is a term used for something that is cooked and reduced like halwa. But a halwa with pumpkin was new to me. I don't even remember that this sweet existed until my mom shared one of her grandmother's recipes. I knew I needed to try. Mathanga vilayichathu/ halwa is simple and comforting. It is made just like a halwa and is time-consuming. But it is worth a try! It is a rustic confectionery that has a unique taste and flavor that lingers in your memories. This sweet will surely make you nostalgic.

Halwa or halvah is a much loved sweet confectionery in Asia, especially in the West, Central, and South Asian regions. Halwa's may contain wheat flour, semolina, rice flour, nuts, or lentils. Not so uncommon is fruit and vegetable halwa. Vegetables like carrots, beets, gourds, yam, or squash make delicious halwa. Pumpkin halwa is also a popular dessert in North India. Kaddu ka Halwa/ petha is a healthy dessert made with pumpkin, milk, and sugar. So if you don't like jaggery, substitute with regular sugar and milk. Ready to get started? Here is the list of ingredients that you will need for this recipe.

Choosing the right ingredients

To cook the pumpkin
It is best to use the sweet pumpkin for this recipe. It is sweet and flavorful. It has tough skin with no green spots left. The orange hue of the skin will dull as it ages. I found ripe pumpkin from our Indian Grocery store. You cook pumpkin like you would any other winter squash, peel it, slice it, and remove the seeds. For this recipe, you can grate the pumpkin, steam, or roast until it is fork-tender.
Grating the pumpkin
One method is to grate, the pumpkin using a box grater. Make sure to saute, and cook the pumpkin in ghee till all the raw flavor disappears. Once thoroughly cooked, add the rest of the ingredients.
Roasting pumpkin in the oven
Rinse the pumpkin, and cut off the top. Cut open in half, scoop out the seeds and fiber. Brush vegetable oil and place the cut side down in a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for about an hour at 350 degrees F. You can check it by piercing a knife. Allow to cool and peel out the skin or scoop out the flesh and put it into a food processor and blend. Refrigerate till it is ready to be used.
Steaming the pumpkin
Rinse the pumpkin and cut off the top, and cut open in half. Scoop out the seeds and fiber. Cut into large chunk pieces, and place it into the steamer. Cook for 10-12 minutes or till it is fork-tender. Allow cooling and scoop out the flesh. Transfer into a food processor and blend into a puree. Refrigerate till it is ready to be used.

Coconut- Grated coconut, coconut paste, or coconut milk works fine for this recipe. You can also substitute with canned coconut milk.

Roasted Rice flour
Traditionally for this recipe, raw rice or matta rice/parboiled rice is dry roasted and ground into a fine powder. To make homemade roasted rice flour, wash and strain rice into a colander. After five minutes, spread the rice on a piece of cloth and leave it to dry for 10-15 minutes. Dry roast the rice on a low flame for 10-12 minutes till the rice changes color to a dark golden brown. The rice is perfectly roasted when it starts spluttering or changes to a golden brown. Allow it to cool down a bit. Using a mixer, make a fine powder. Sieve the flour to make sure there are no lumps. Grind the large chunks again and sieve once again. You can also use store brought rice flour. Gently dry roast it on low flame for 5-6 minutes. Sieve the flour to make sure there are no lumps.

Jaggery is the preferred sweetener for most traditional sweets and snacks. Jaggery or unfiltered sugar from coconut sap. It has a rich molasses taste. It is best to use dark color jaggery or natural jaggery for dark color and richer flavor. But if you wish to retain the orange hue of the pumpkin, select lighter variety jaggery or sugar. Cardamom and ghee enhance the flavor.

Coconut Pumpkin Halwa/ Pumpkin Dessert- Mathanga Varattiyathu

Ingredients
Pumpkin puree- 2 1/2 cup
Rice-1 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 kg
Sugar- 2 tbs
Finely grated coconut- 1/2 cup
Coconut Milk thick- 1 cup
Cashew nuts crushed - 10-12
Raisins- 2-3 tbs
Cardamon powder- 1/2 tsp
Ghee- 1/2 cup

Cooking the pumpkin
Rinse the pumpkin, and cut off the top. Cut open in half, scoop out the seeds and fiber. Cut into large chunk pieces and place them into the steamer. Cook for 10-12 minutes or till it is fork-tender. Allow to cool and peel out the skin or scoop out the flesh and put it into a food processor and blend. Refrigerate till it is ready to be used. Refer to the notes above for other ways to cook pumpkins.

Roasting the rice
To make homemade roasted rice flour, wash and strain rice into a colander. After five minutes, spread the rice on a piece of cloth and leave it to dry for 10 minutes. Dry roast the rice on a low flame for 10-12 minutes till the rice changes color to a dark golden brown. The rice is perfectly roasted when it starts spluttering or changes to a golden brown. Allow it to cool down a bit. Using a mixer, make a fine powder. Sieve the flour to make sure there are no lumps. Grind the large chunks again and sieve once again.

To make the jaggery syrup
Add powdered jaggery, and one and one-half cups of water in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil, and let it simmer and dissolve. Strain the impurities and set them aside.
It is best to use freshly grated coconut milk. You can use 1 1/2 to 2 cups of shredded coconut to extract thick coconut milk. Add grated coconut and one cup of water into a mixer and grind for a minute. Strain the coconut milk, and squeeze it to extract the coconut milk. Add some more water and pulse in the mixer one more time, and strain again.

In a large, heavy bottom, the pan adds ghee and fry the cashew nuts and raisins. Drain and set aside. Into the ghee, add the pumpkin puree, and saute for 6-8 minutes. Saute till it changes color to a darker hue. In a separate bowl, add coconut milk, jaggery syrup, and roasted rice flour. Use a whisk to blend everything properly for a thin lump-free batter. Pour this into the pan and quickly mix till the pumpkin and the flour mixture are well combined. As it warms up, it will start thickening. It is important to stir continuously to avoid lumps. Cook for 8-10 minutes or till the mixture turns to a soft dough consistency. At this stage, add more ghee, if necessary, to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Add grated coconut, cardamom powder, sugar, and chopped fried cashew nuts and raisins.
Cook until it gets reduced to 1/3 of its volume. The ghee will begin to separate. The halwa will be ready when it leaves the edges of the pan and is easily rolled, into a ball with the spatula. You can strain off this excess ghee before transferring it to a tray. Allow it to cool down and enjoy!