WINTER SPECIAL SWEET: DHAPKYA CHI SHAAK

This is a winter special sweet delight made from the calabash/bottle gourd in our Kokani Muslim community. Evers since I was a child, every winter without fail I have seen the calabash making its way from our village to our Mumbai home only to be used for this dish by my late grandmother and thereafter my mother.

The recipe is noteworthy in the way it is slow-cooked for hours and entails use of onions although it is a sweet dish. The calabash is mixed with chopped onions, jaggery, coconut, green cardamom, cinnamon and cooked very gradually to allow intense caramelization to take place. Once ready this preparation is relished as is or with chaawrachi roti (rice flour bhaakris/chapatis).

I am very happy to post this recipe and it has also been featured in Mumbai Mirror and Pune Mirror today. Here is the link to the epaper to find same:
https://www.google.co.in/amp/punemirror.indiatimes.com/others/you/winter-is-coming-on-your-plate/amp_articleshow/61896420.cms

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours
Servings: 10 - 12
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INGREDIENTS:
• 1 Calabash (approx. 1.5 kg)
• 5 Red onions (medium-sized)
• 2 cups Freshly scraped coconut
• 3 cups Grated jaggery
• ½ tsp Green cardamom powder
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 4-5 Whole green cardamoms
• 2 Cinnamon sticks (medium sized)
• 4 cups Fresh coconut milk (thick)
• 3 tbsp Ghee
• Almond slivers & khus khus (poppy seeds) for garnishing
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METHOD:
1. Peel and finely slice the onions. Mix them with jaggery, scraped coconut, green cardamom powder and salt. Keep aside.
2. Peel, deseed the calabash and cut it into palm-sized cubes
3. Stuff the onion mixture in the hollow in each cube.
4. Line the base of a thick bottomed cooking pot with the stuffed calabash cubes.
5. Layer remaining onion mixture, whole green cardamom and cinnamon evenly over the stuffed pieces of gourd.
6. Pour coconut milk over this entire arrangement but do not mix or stir.
7. Place the pot on absolutely low flame, cover it and allow the dish to simmer for 5 hours or until the coconut milk evaporates.
8. Add the ghee at this stage into the mixture but do not stir the mixture since the cubes need to be whole at the end of cooking.
9. Cover and cook further on low flame till a dark brown caramelization develops and the dish begins to slightly stick to the bottom of the pot.
10. Pull off the stove and serve hot garnished with almond slivers and khus khus.

So, do try out this recipe and let me know how it turned out.
Till then, HAPPY COOKING...