Kheer Patol/ Patol Mishti is a unique preparation of a sweet dish where the sweetness is blended with the taste and texture of a vegetable. It is like unraveling a secret treasure as the flavour of kheer is moulded around by a soft cover of parwal or patol and slowly unfolds its magic. Having always been fascinated by the silver foil covered greenish glowing kheer patol at the sweet shops in Kolkata since the growing years, hardly got a chance to actually relish its taste for quite a few years now. Long nurturing the desire, at last pulled the socks up to indulge in the joy of making kheer patol/ patol mishti and share the recipe with you, my friends. A lovely, mouth watering sweet dish, kheer potol can be fascinating and a surprise gift for the family. Icing on the cake is slices dry fruits resting on kheer potol.

Few more examples of sweets prepared out of vegetables, I post earlier in my blog, are Gajorer Halua or Carrot Halwa & Carrot Coconut Laddu. You can also check them if you wish.

Ingredients for 8 pieces :

1. Patol/Parwal/Pointed Gourd – 8 nos. (medium – large size)
2. Khoya/Mawa – 200 gm.
3. Sugar – ¾ cup + 3 tbspoon
4. Almond – 8 nos.
5. Cashew – 8 nos.
6. Raisin – 8 nos.
7. Green cardamom – 3
8. Kewara water – 2 drops
9. Green food colour – 1-2 drops (optional)
10. Water – 1 cup

Procedure :

Step 1 : Preparing ‘Mishti Patol’ (sweet pointed gourd)

• Firstly wash the pointed gourd (patol/parwal) with water 2-3 times after bringing them from the market. Then cut both the pointed tips of the vegetable and peel them off completely.
• Now using a sharp knife cut a long slit along the length. Make sure that both the ends remain intact. Using a small spoon, scoop out the seeds inside the pointed gourd and make a room for stuffing.
• Then boil sufficient amount of water in a kadai or pan. Put the pointed gourds (patol) into the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes on medium flame. Cover the pan with a lid while steaming the pointed gourds. After that drain the water through a strainer and keep aside the boiled pointed gourds.
• Now pour ¾ th cup of sugar and 1 cup of water in a kadai to make the sugar syrup. Also add the green food colour now, if you are using. Boil the mixture on medium flame till all the sugar gets dissolved. Then add boiled pointed gourd into the sugar syrup and cook for another 10 minutes over medium flame.
• After that, remove the sweet pointed gourds (mishti patol) from the syrup and place them on a strainer. Drip out excess syrup and let them completely cool.

Step 2 : Preparing the khoya/mawa stuffing

• Firstly, grind 3 tbspoon of sugar in a mixer grinder to get the powdered form.
• Secondly, take out the seeds from the cardamom pods and crush them in a mortar and pestle.
• After that, roughly chop cashew nuts and almonds (5 nos.). Thinly slice remaining 3 almonds. Soak the raisins in water for 10-15 minutes.
• Then grate the khoya/mawa directly in a cold kadai. Place the kadai over low flame. As khoya starts melting, add powdered sugar and mix well with the help of a spatula. Stir frequently so that khoya doesn’t stick to the bottom. After cooking the mixture for 2-3 minutes, add 2 drops of kewara water and mix well. Then put the flame off and transfer the soft khoya in a plate and let it cool.
• While the khoya is still warm add chopped nuts and crushed cardamom. Mix them well with your hand. Now the stuffing is ready to feed the sweet pointed gourds (mishti patol)

Step 3 : Feeling sweet pointed gourds with khoya stuffing

• Take each sweet pointed gourd and fill with the prepared khoya stuffing.
• Then garnish with raisins and sliced almonds.

Note :

• Food colour is completely optional. It only enhance the look not the taste.
• One can also use pistachio or silver leaf/ rangta/ candi vark for garnishing the sweets.