Instant Pot Bottle Gourd Halwa | Dudhi Halwa

Dudhi or lauki is known as bottle gourd or calabash gourd in English. Dudhi halwa or Lauki halwa is an Indian dessert made by cooking shredded bottle gourd with milk, sugar and condiments. It is very easy to make lauki halwa in the instant pot.

Ingredients to make dudhi halwa

Lauki halwa requires very few basic ingredients apart from of course bottle gourd. This recipe is made without khoya, condensed milk or milk powder. You will need below ingredients

• Bottle gourd
• Sugar
• Whole milk
• Evaporated milk
• Ghee (clarified butter)
• Cashews, raisins, saffron strands, cardamom powder or milk masala powder adds rich flavor to this dessert.
• Almond slivers are used for garnishing but is absolutely optional.

How to select a perfect bottle gourd?

To make dudhi halwa, it is very important to select the right bottle gourd. To select the right bottlegourd, press its surface, it should be hard.

You also want a long kind of gourd rather than the rounded ones as they have a lot of seeds. The lesser the seeds, it is better for cooking and especially making halwa.

Before grating cut a piece of bottlegourd and taste it to ensure it is not bitter. If it tastes bitter, discard it completely and not use it at all.

How to grate bottle gourd?

Dudhi can be easily grated using a food processor or a hand grater. Peel the bottle gourd and cut it into a few slices. If there are a lot of seeds then remove them and discard them. Shred the slices using a food processor.

Squeeze out as much water as possible from the grated lauki as it speeds up the cooking process.

Why make lauki halwa in the instant pot?

Traditionally, dudhi halwa is made by roasting shredded bottlegourd in ghee and then cooking it in milk and allowing the milk to evaporate.

This takes a long time and requires manual effort of mixing, scraping the bottom of the pan and continuous monitoring so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

However, with an instant pot, this entire process is simplified and overall time required also reduces to a great extent. There is also no need to continuously monitor the dessert while it is being cooked.

How to make dudhi halwa in instant pot?

To make dudhi halwa in the instant pot, turn the instant pot on saute mode on normal setting and once hot add ghee or clarified butter. Once ghee is hot, add the grated bottle gourd and saute for 2-3 minutes, it will change color slightly.

Now add milk and mix well. Turn out of saute mode by pressing cancel and then put the instant pot lid on with the valve in sealing position. Turn on pressure mode or manual mode on high pressure setting for 5 minutes.

Once done, perform a quick release by turning the pressure knob on venting position until the silver pin drops.

Add sugar, evaporated milk, raisins, cashews, saffron strands and cardamom powder. Mix well and turn the saute mode on high and allow all the liquids to evaporate. This can take about 8 minutes.

Once done, turn the saute mode off and transfer the lauki halwa to a serving bowl.

Serving and storing suggestions for dudhi halwa

Dudhi halwa is best served warm, garnish with some almond slivers or chopped pistachios while serving

Dudhi halwa can be stored in the refrigrator for 3-4 days and can be frozen for a month.

Don't forget to checkout these delicious Indian dessert recipes made in the instant pot.

• Carrot halwa
• Moong dal halwa
• Kalakand
• Vermicelli pudding
• Rasgulla
• Rasmalai
• Cham cham

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