Papaya Halwa

Welcoming all of you to my food blog with a sweet dish made of the vitamin rich Papaya. Images right from my kitchen. I had not added any food colour to it. Original colour of papaya.

I am not a kitchen expert but it was a long time wish to start a food blog only to share some of recipes very common to Kerala. I am always eager to know about the health benefits of the food. Beyond all the measurements, this blog may focus on the nutrition of the dishes. Expecting more cooperation from my blog friends.

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