Organisers of the event: -
Yamuna, Sahitya, Shubha Ravikoti & Shashikala.
Today we are posting all the entries we have got for the Dassera contest.
As u all r aware that we hosted 2 contest for this month.
1) Dassera - Cooking Contest
2) Essence of Dassera - Creativity Contest
We got 9 entries and the variety of halwas ranges from... beetroot to cabbage to potato... and the list goes on. All participants have put immense effort in this, so please vote and vote carefully and sensibly.
Entry No. 1: China Grass Halwa by Shruthi Hebbur
Recipe of CHINA GRASS HALWA( in kannada - china grass Ginnu ; in telugu- china grass Junnu) below:
INGREDIENTS:-
China grass[ Chopped small pieces]- 1 cup
Jaggery- powdered- 1.25 cup
Milk- 3 cups
water- 1 cup
Roasted almonds and cashwentuts- 2tspn
Method:-
1. First cut the china grass in to small pieces and keep aside
2.Add water in to china grass and keep it on medium flame for boiling.
3. when it dissolves. add jaggery and keep stirring in a low flame.
4. Finally add BOILED HOT MILK in to the mixture and stir it. you will see milk kind of curdling. Take out from flame and pour it in small cups.
5. it will take 15 mins to get halwa consistency.
6. Finally you can add roasted almonds and Cashwenuts on Halwa.
Note:- This dish tastes excatly like ginnu( the sweet made out of cows lactating cow's milk), therfore it is called ginnu kadabu in kannada.Entry No. 2: Besan Halwa by Shruthi Vijay
Hello Everyone,Many of you may be wondering what is this Besan Halwa. Most of you don't know actually. ;-)I learnt this recipe from my mom. Well this is a very simple recipe similar to Sooji Halwa.So let us see the procedure.
Ingredients:
Besan(Gram Flour) 1cup
Sugar 1cup
Pure Ghee 3/4cup
Water 2-1/2cup
Mixed Dry Fruits 1/2cup
Procedure:
1. Take a vessel and water and get them to boil.
2. Meanwhile take a pan. And add gram flour and roast for about 3-4 minutes, till it turns light brown as in fig-1.
3. Now add pure ghee along with mixed dry fruits and mix well.
4. Continuously mix till it turns little brown as shown in fig-2.
5. Now turn stove to warm/low position and add water while mixing as shown in fig-3.
6. After besan/gram flour mixes well in water, add sugar as shown in fig-4.
7. Mix well as shown in fig-5.
8. Continuously mix till the whole mixture thickens as shown in fig-6.
9. Now serve in a bowl.
Preperation Time:20-25 Minutes
Servings:2
Hope you all love it and vote for me.....
Entry No. 3: Dates Halwa by Ramya Bala
A healthy halwa for the sweeth tooth!
Ingredients:
1 cup pitted seedless dates
1 1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup sugar or more
1 tsp heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup Ghee
few broken cashews
To garnish ground pistachios
Method:
1.Cook dates in milk until it turns soft.
2.Remove from heat and when it cools down,grind the dates into a fine paste.
3.In a heavy bottomed pan,add the paste and sugar and stir until it both gets well mixed.Intially it will be thinner,but in minutes you will see the difference.
4.Continue to stir and when its 3/4th cooked, add the ghee little by little until the halwa aborbs the ghee.You can add the heavy cream once the ghee is absorbed and continue to stir.
5.In a separate pan,heat little ghee and fry the broken cashews.I used the side of the same pan as I used a very big pan.
6.Add the cahews and continue to stir until the halwa leaves the pan and moves to the center.
7.Remove and allow it to cool.
8.You can have it as such or make into desired shape.I rolled in between palm and rolled into spirals.
9.Garnish with ground pistachios on top. 
Entry No. 4: Gajar Halwa by Vasanthy Suresh
INGREDIENTS:
carrot-4(FINELY GRATED)
sugar-1 cup
milk-500ml.
cashew-50 gms
raisins-25gms
cardomom powder-1 spoon
ghee-1/2 cup
PROCEDURE:
1.BOIL MILK ALONG WITH CARROT GRATED.
2.CARROT GRATED SHUD FULLY GET COOKED IN THE MILK.
3.ADD CASHEW PASTE TO THE CONTENT.(SOAK CASHEW IN WATER FOR 1 HR , AND GRIND IT INTO A PASTE)
4.NOW ADD SUGAR. LET IT BOIL, UNTILL THE WHOLE CONTENT GETS WELL COOKED.
5.ADD GHEE LITTLE BY LITTLE.
6.ADD CARDOMOM POWDER.
7.AFTER THE WHOLE CONTENT IS WELL COOKED, DECORATE IT WITH CASHEWS,RASINS FRIED IN GHEE. NOW OUR TASTY CARROT HALWA IS READY TO SERVE. 
Entry No 5: Strawberry Halwa by Saraswathy Balakrishnan
Ingredients :
1 cup of freshly chopped strawberries
1 cup of milk
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of ghee
½ cup of strawberry milk
5 pcs cardamom pods
2 tablespoon of raisins
2 tablespoon of sugar
3 tablespoon of honey
The duration for the entire recipe is 1hour.
Serving Size : 4
Preparation Method :
1) In a food processor add the freshly chopped strawberries.
2) Add ½ cup of strawberry milk.
3) Add 2 tablespoon of honey.
4) Add 3 tablespoon of sugar.
5) Finally add 2 cardamon pods to the mixture.
6) Blend all the added ingredients into a smooth mixture.
7) On medium flame add cup of milk in a heavy wok.
8) Add cup of sugar, stirring the mixture slowly.
9) Continue stirring the mixture until it boils.
10) The mixture of milk and sugar will boil , approximately in 20 minutes.
11) Lower the flame slightly , and add the blended strawberry mixture slowly to the boiling mixture.
12) Combine the mixture well by stirring continually for about 15 minutes.
13) Now add the remaining cardamon pods to the mixture.
14) After 10 minutes, remove the cardamon pod and continue stirring.
15) After stirring for another 15 minute, the mixture will come to a thick paste consistency as shown in the picture.
16) Once we reach thick consistency as shown in the picture, add cup of ghee and stir well until the ghee dissolves well.
17) Add raisins and cashew nuts to the mixture and continue stirring.
18) Pour the mixture into moulds and let the mixture cool.
Now enjoy yummy, tasty Strawberry Halwa .
Entry No 6: Beetroot Halwa by Rajeshwari Mahadev
Ingredients for beetroot halwa:
3 medium size beet root
3 cups Milk
1/2 teaspoon Cardamom seeds
3 tablespoons Ghee
1 tablespoon Raisins
1 table spoon cashews
1 cup sugar
Preparation of beet root halwa :
1.Wash and grate the beetroots.
2.Put the water to boil, when it starts boiling add the grated beetroot. Cook for 5-7 minutes.
3.Add the milk. Cook on a low flame for 1 hour stirring occasionally. Add sugar, mix well and cook till the sugar has dissolved and all the milk has been absorbed.
4.Add ghee and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add the slightly crushed cardamoms and the raisins. Mix well.
5.Remove the beetroot halwa from heat and arrange in a serving dish. Garnish nicely with what ever u like. Serve cold, hot or at room temperature.
Entry No 7: Beetroot Halwa by Sangeeth
Red in colour, very juicy and soooo tasty. Thats what i can say for this lovely looking Halwa. Sangeeth came up with this awesome Beetroot Halwa. It looks so delicious. I am sure kids are gonna attack on it. Are ur kids ready for the attack? Here goes the recipe....:)
Ingredients: (makes for two people and takes 15 mts to prepare)
1 cup beetroot, grated
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
1 cup of milk
1/4 cup of ghee, clarified butter or butter
2 cardamom whole
Few fried cashew
1/4 of powdered Almonds or any nuts of your choice
Method:
1. In a pan, fry the grated beetroot in ghee for 2 min.
2. Add the milk and cook the beetroot in a Sim flame.
3. Add sugar and stir occasionally.
4.Make sure that the beetroot is cooked before adding sugar, as sugar will not allow the beetroot to get cooked.
5. Now add the fried cashew and cardamom and mix well.
6. Finally before switching off, add the powdered nuts and mix slightly.
A crunchy nutritional dessert ready to be served! You can serve it with vanilla ice cream too. I love this combination. I bet kids won't say a 'NO' to this beetroot halwa recipe! I have attached the PIc here in the mail. Do let me know if I need to do anything else. Its really fun participating in this contest.Thanks girls for the opportunity.
Entry No 8: Potato Halwa by Kavya Naimish
Another amazing halwa recipe comes from Kavya Naimish, and she come up with this yummy Potato halwa. I did come across this recipe when we were looking for details of hosting this cooking event. I was so drawn by this recipe and Kavya here has made it so well. Looks yummy doesn't it?
Cooking Time:30 mins(When all the ingridents are ready)
Ingredients:
1.Ghee:3 spn
2.Potato:3 medium(peeled boiled and mashed)
3.Dry Fruits:Cashew and Badam(15 each)(u can even add pista as per ur taste)
4.Milk:150 ml
5.Sugar:Acc to ur taste
6.Elachi:2
7.Kova:4 spn
Procedure:
1.Firstly crush the dry fruits or u can even make them into coarse powder in ur blender with out adding water.
2.Put a pan,pour ghee and when it melts add the crushed dry fruits and fry till good flavour comes out.
3.Add the mashed potato and stir well for 2 mins.
4.Now add the sugar according to your taste,When you add sugar the potato mixture becomes loose,stir well.
5.At this time add 3 spns of kova and mix well.
6.Add milk and cook the mixture till the entire mixture is cooked well.Remove the skin of elachi and add the crushed seeds.
7.Keep stirring the mixture so that it does not burn.When the mixture is completely cooked it oozes ghee.Then the mixture is ready.
8.Remove from flame and let the mixture cool down.
9.Now make the mixture into desired shapes.And put few nuts on top and serve it.
10.I made them into the shapes as shown and decorated it with food color and nuts.
Making Kova:All u need is to keep boiling the whole milk on low flame and keep stirring it in between..Boil it till all the milk is evaporated and you will be left wid a smooth paste.This is your fresh kova.
Variations:
1.You can have this halwa even when it is hot..For which you have to keep the consistency loose,so that you can eat it.
2.To make Halwa into pieces:When the mixture is cool..Take a plate grease it with little ghee and spread the halwa equally and cut them into squares, diamonds or as you like.
3.Instead of kova..you can even use panner.For this all u have to do is boil the milk till it reduces to half of the amount and now add grated panner and cool well till all the milk is evaporated and smooth paste is left.
Here is the step by step pic of the making of Halwa.
Entry No 9: Cabbage Halwa by Ujwala Mohan
Uniqueness is the key and this one is a bunch of keys.Ujwala has sent the lovely looking Cabbage Halwa for the event. Thanks Ujwala for the lovely entry.Here goes the recipe for this tasting looking Halwa. She has also sent a step by step collage pic of the Halwa which shows the effort and love one put into making something that looks so simple.....:) Best of luck. So what r u waiting? Like the Cabbage Halwa? Start voting.
Ingredients: -
2 cups cabbage, finely chopped
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup grated coconut
2 tbsp cashew nuts, roasted
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1 tbsp ghee little milk, required during grinding
few drops Vanilla essence
1 tbsp dry grapes, for garnishing
Method: -
1. In a heavy bottomed pan, add little ghee & fry the cabbage for a minute or two.
2. Then pour water over it & cook till it becomes tender. This should take around 10-15 minutes.
3. When no water is left, remove from fire & let the cooked cabbage cool down completely.
4. Grind this along with cashew nuts & coconut along with little milk.
5. In the pan add sugar & sprinkle water on it. Prepare the sugar syrup.
6. When the sugar dissolves completely, add the ground paste & keep stirring till halwa consistency is reached.
7. Add the remaining ghee & remove from fire. Let it cool.
8. Add cardamom powder & vanilla essence. Mix well.
9. Garnish with dry grapes.
Thats an amazing recipe.. with nice Presentation. Best of luck!
