My mom who has a huge kitchen garden in her terrace in Goa  was kind enough to send me a lovely organic pumpkin….by courier. Only mothers are capable of doing this.

So I made my favourite dish out of it…..Gharge.

Gharge is a very traditional recipe of Maharashtra. It is basically a sweet puri that has pumpkin(In Marathi: Lal Bhopla) as one of its major ingredient.The colour and sweet taste is because of jaggery.They are mildly flavoured with nutmeg .

Addition of fenel seeds gives a very distinct flavour.

Ingredients:

1 cup Pumkin(Deskinned and grated)

1 & 1/2 cup Wheat flour.

2 tbsp Rice flour.

3/4 cup Jaggery grated.

1 tbsp Ghee.

1 tsp nutmeg powder.

1/2 tsp Fennel seeds.

1/2 tsp roasted Til (sesame seeds)

1/2 tsp khus khus (Poppy seeds)

Salt to taste.

Oil for frying.

Method:

In a thick bottomed pan combine grated pumpkin, jaggery,salt and ghee .

Cook on medium heat till pumpkin is cooked and the mixture is a thick sticky mass.

Add fenel seeds,khus khus and til,mix well.Remove in a bowl and leave to cool.

Once cooled,add both the flours and nutmeg powder.

knead well to form semi hard dough.apply little oil cover and keep aside for 15 to 20 mins.

Make small golf-ball sized balls of this mixture.

Apply little oil on a plastic sheet.Pat each ball between the sheet and roll out to form a puri.

 

Deep fry the gharges till golden-brown in hot oil.

Drain on absorbant paper.

Serve hot.

Happy Cooking !!!