Parwal mithai / Sweet n stuffed pointed gourd

Food experimentation is endless and timeless. For centuries food has evolved with the ever evolving humankind 🙂

The evolving part of food can be roughly summarized to necessity and curiosity.

What i present today may have evolved out of man’s curiosity 😉 for making a fabulous sweet out of a humble, often ignored vegetable.

Parwal(pointed gourd) mithai comes from the holy city of Varanasi (earlier Benaras), on the banks of the river Ganga. Though the sweet is also popular in Bihar and West Bengal.

Mishti (Bangla Language) or sweet forms an integral part of Indian cuisine and especially the Bengalis 😉 , even our language is called ‘mishti’ 😉

I have tried nothing new in making this sweet, only to fulfill my sweet -tooth cravings 😛

Here’s what i did……

INGREDIENTS

500 gms – pointed gourd

For the stuffing :

200 gms – khoya

¼ cup – sugar (powdered)

1 tbsp – almonds

1 tbsp – pistachios

½ tsp – cardamom powder

For the syrup :

1 ¼ cup – sugar

2 cups – water

METHOD :

Peel the pointed gourds well. Slit them lengthwise and gently empty out the centre (seeds etc). put some water to boil and slide in the gourds and boil for a few minutess. Take them out  and drain well.

In a separate vessel,put water and sugar on low to medium flame for a 1 string consistency. Slide in the gourds in this syrup and cook on low flame for 6-7 minutes. Take it off the fire, cover and keep it aside for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the stuffing. Heat a heavy bottomed pan, put in the khowa and cook it for a few minutes ( approx 3 minutes ). Taking it off the fire and allow to cool. Coarse grind the almond and pistachio , reserving a little to decorate, mix the rest with the cooled khowa. Add the sugar powder and mix in well.

Take the gourds out of the syrup and drain out the excess syrup by arranging them on a tilted plate.

Once drained, stuff them with khowa mixture, gently. Sprinkle some of the reserved almond – pistachio coarsely grinded powder.

Refrigerate for an hour before serving. The sweet can last a fortnight if kept refrigerated.

Happy cooking !!!

Cheers !!! 😀