A popular sweetmeat known as agra ka petha is more of a candy than a sweetmeat. It has a semi-translucent white colour. On first bite, it seems chewy, but it instantly melts in your tongue and leaves a beautiful sweet aftertaste.
Ash gourds, commonly referred to as white pumpkins, are a vegetable with a pale-green exterior and white, heavily-seeded, savoury inside that is used to make Agra ka petha. The gourd is sliced into bite-sized pieces and then cured for a few hours in a solution of lime (not the citrus fruit; this is white calcium hydroxide).
They boil the gourd pieces until they are soft after removing them from the lime solution, and then they soak them in a flavorful syrup. The final candy has a sugar-crisp exterior and an almost moist, sticky interior with a chewy, crystalline texture. The flavouring of Agra’s confections is considered to be inventive, and candy counters in the city are rainbows of vibrantly coloured petha flavoured with everything from paan to rose.
This is one recipe for which my readers have been asking me after I initially felt uncomfortable posting it. It took me four tries to perfect this recipe since I kept fiddling with the texture and crispiness. In fact, when I first started this site, I never imagined that I would be posting such difficult dessert dishes as the agra ka petha recipe. I’ve always thought that certain foods are always prepared and served by halwai or by a chef who works in a bakery or restaurant. I am presenting this recipe with my own adaptation because I have to respect my readers’ requests. The plain petha recipe is the conventional or widely used variation.
Agra ka Petha | agra ka petha kaise banta hai
Equipment
- 1 One big Bowl
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Knife
- 1 Deep non-stick pan
Ingredients
- 1 Kg Ash gourd
- 1 Tbsp Limestone ( Chuna)
- 3 Piece Cardamom
- 1 Pinch Saffron
- 1 Tbsp Kawda water For flavouring
- 350 Gram Sugar You can add more as your taste
Instructions
For making Agra ka Petha
- First, fully remove the skin and seed flesh from the ash gourd before cutting it into cubes.
- The ash gourd fragments are now poked from all angles. put aside.
- 1 tsp of limestone or chuna should be dissolved in 4 cups of water in a big dish.
- Add the chopped ash gourd now and well mix.
- soaking for 24 hours, stirring every 3 hours.
- Rub each and every cube of the ash gourd as you rinse and cleanse it.
- Now, heat 4 cups of water in a pot until it boils. 12- to 15-minute boil.
- Ash gourd pieces should be added; cook while stirring occasionally.
- Moreover, combine 350 gram sugar, 3 cardamom pods, a few saffrons, and a pinch of saffron food colouring in a sizable kadai.
- Additionally, add 1/4 cup water and whisk sugar to dissolve.
- Add the cooked ash gourd once the sugar has dissolved.
- Stir thoroughly, then boil for ten minutes.
- The Agra ka petha should now be placed on a plate or wire mesh to totally cool for at least 12 hours.
- Last but not least, serve Agra ka petha or keep it in an airtight container.
Video
Notes
- You can take the Petha out of the sugar syrup, dry them well and keep them in a good container to enjoy Agra ka petha tatste for a long time.
