Papaya is an all time available fruit in Kerala. Because of the ignorance we are not giving much importance to this fruit.
Scientific name of Papaya:Carica Papaya
English name:Papaya
Sanskrit name:Chirbhitha,Eranda Chirbhitha
Hindi:Papitha
Thamil:pappali
Origin: It is believed that it is from Southern Mexico. It is now present in every tropical country. It is also known as Paw Paw and tree lemon in England.
Papaya is a healthy food especially for our skin.
Some nutritional benefits of Papaya from the net
- Rich with VitaminC, folate and Pottasium
- Good source of Vitamin A and Vitamin E
- It contains anti oxidants which give protection against heart diseases
- Digestive Aid
- 13 times more Vitamin C than Apples
- 33 times more Vitamin C than Oranges
Its always to good to eat the fruit as it is but children always deny Papaya because of the special taste. Thus it ended up with a sweet Halwa.
Recipe of Papaya Halwa
Ripe Papaya -2Cups
Rice powder roasted-3 table spoons
Sugar -According to your taste
Ghee-3-4 table spoons
Cashew nuts -5-6
Method
After peeling cut the Papaya into small pieces. Using a mixer make a puree of Papaya. First roast the cashew nuts. Place a thick bottomed a vessel with 1 spoon ful of ghee. After removing the nuts we can add the papaya puree to the vessel and stir occasionally. After 15 minutes we can add sugar and rice powder to it. Then add the rest of the ghee to the vessel. After some time we can see the mixture will come out of the vessel surface. continue stirring till it becomes a ball. Then spread it into a flat vessel which must be coated with ghee. Garnish with Cashew nuts. After thorough cooling we can cut it into pieces.
It will take around 45 minutes to complete the dish. According to my opinion it is not an easy dish. If we have enough time we can do it and children will love the dish.
It can be served as a Dessert or a tea time sweet.
'Halva refers to many types of dense, confections served across the Indian subcontinent' wiki
We, Keralites have lot of names for Papaya, some of them are Omakka, Papparakka, Kappalanga and Kappanga.
If you are interested to know more about papaya tree
i want to try it....but no pappaya available now...thanks for sharing ashwathi..seems to be very delicious
ReplyDeleteThanks sneha...its the first comment from the food blog. Thanking you for yr continuous support. I got this from my neighbour. She brought it from Thakazhi.
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