Today's delicious sweet food, which my family and I, my children all love very much. I don't know what name this sweet food is called in your area, but we call it Penta. It is a big pumpkin-shaped fruit, but it is not a pumpkin. We call it Penta in our language. This Penta is large in size and is used to make sweet halwa. Therefore, everyone in my house likes this sweet halwa very much. But here I want to tell you that the method of making Penta halwa is very easy and you can make it at home very easily. You must be seeing the Penta in the picture. It is large in size, but the Penta that we cut today and made Halwa from it was about six kilos in size and weight. We cut two Pentas and made Halwa from these two Pentas. But let me tell you that I will write this Penta here as Pumpkin because this name is more international. It is famous that if you also want to make its halwa easily at home like us, then I am going to tell you the recipe. You have to note the recipe down, but let me tell you one more thing here. There is no need to write it down because it is so easy that you will be surprised to read it, but the dish is so delicious that you will eat your fingers after eating it.
In the picture you see a large panta in my hand. The first thing you have to do is wash it well. After washing, cut it into two or four parts and then make small pieces of it as you see. I have attached pictures in which I have cut it into small pieces. When you have cut them into small pieces, then you have to remove the skin that is on top of it, which is the hard skin. When you remove this hard skin, then you have to cut them into small pieces. When you cut it into small pieces, it will also make it easier to cook. When you cut it into small pieces, then you have to wash it again with clean and fresh water. You have to wash it very well because sometimes sand or soil etc. gets on it. While cutting, when you wash it well with water, then you have to light a fire. When the fire burns, you have to put an equal weight of it in it. You have to put the pot on the fire and pour water into it. Now how much water should you add? If your pumpkin weighs five kilos, then you have to add about eight kilos of water. If it weighs 10 kilos, then you have to add the same amount of water. In this way, I will tell you a simple formula. If you have one kilo of pumpkin and you want to make halwa from it, then the pumpkin is one kilo, then you have to use two kilos or one and a half liters of water in it. Now you must have understood the formula. Now you have to take a big pot and pour water equal to the weight in this big pot. When the water gets well heated and starts boiling, then you have to put these chopped small pieces of pumpkin in this water and cook it until the water is less than half and you will see that this pumpkin will melt, become close to being cooked and become soft.
When the water is less than half and the pumpkin is soft, then you have to add sugar to it or you can also use jaggery in it. You have to add jaggery equal to its weight. If there was one kilo of pumpkin, then you have to use about one kilo of sugar or jaggery in it. But some people eat very little sweets and use less sweets, then you can add sweets to it according to your need or according to your taste. Similarly, you have to fry it well and cook it well. When all the water inside it is completely dried, it dries up and its color becomes brown, then you have to understand that it is almost cooked.
When its color starts to turn brown and it is well roasted and cooked, then you have to mix cardamom and other dry fruits in it. You can also add almonds, walnuts, pistachios and other dry fruits, whatever you like. You can add dry fruits of your choice to enhance its taste and make it even better.
When you mix dry fruits in it, then you have to fry and cook it slowly for five minutes on low flame. When it is cooked well, you have to take it out in a vessel and eat it cold or hot. It tastes very delicious in both the cases, but we eat it with great enthusiasm in the afternoon and morning with tea.
Now you see that only two ingredients are needed to make it, firstly, the pumpkin itself or pantha as we call it, then water is needed, and then sweet sugar or jaggery, whichever you like, can be used for dessert, and the rest, if you want to add dry fruits to it, then add them. If you don't want to add dry fruits to it, then don't, but still it tastes very delicious. I have not used any dry fruits in the porridge I have cooked in front of you.
This sweet food is very delicious, my children, all the adults in our house, my family eat it with great enthusiasm and now it is summer season, so this pumpkin-like vegetable is being grown in many fields and its price in the market is still quite high and as its production increases in the market, the more supply there is, the lower its price will be. I intend to buy it and store it and save it for the winter because it is a pumpkin whose upper skin is very hard and it stays fresh for a long time.
We have been eating this sweet food since childhood, but now there are some people who cook it by salting it, they cook it by salting it completely, but I have never eaten it by salting it because its own taste is sweet and if it has its own sweetness and we want to change its taste by mixing salty things in it, then I don't think it will be a good experience, but many people say that if it is cooked by mixing salty things in it, its taste becomes even more amazing, but I really like this pumpkin in desserts, but I have never eaten it raw. Some people eat it raw and also eat it cooked, they also eat it by mixing salty things, but it is our home dessert and we like it very much and it is available in summer but it is also sold in winter, but sometimes in winter since it is not produced at all and these shopkeepers store it, it is very expensive. They sell it expensively. At present, its price in the market is equal to its weight. If its weight is 10 kg, then it is being sold for about 500 rupees in Pakistani rupees. So, the two I bought and brought weighed about five to six kg each. Thus, the total amount I paid was 600 rupees. So, for 600 rupees, I have made this halwa at home and this halwa is very delicious. My children and my family have eaten it with great pleasure. If I say that this is also a traditional halwa of my village, which people cook at home in the summer season after the harvest is ready. But here I also want to tell you that people eat it with great enthusiasm mostly in the afternoon with afternoon tea, in the morning with morning tea, and in the evening with evening tea. People also serve it to guests. If there are guests coming to someone's house, then this halwa is prepared in the summer season and the guests eat it with great enthusiasm. The method is that you can eat it with a spoon, secondly you can mix it with hot wheat bread and eat it and sometimes you can eat it with naan puris too. This is a very delicious meta food and today I thought I would tell you about it and I have made all these pictures when we were cutting and making it. I hope you will guess by looking at the pictures how I have made this delicious dessert at my home. Thank you very much to all of you for reading my food article today.