Puhul Dosi (Sri Lankan Winter Melon Candy) is a traditional Sri Lankan recipe for a classic sweet or candy made from wrung dry wintermelon flesh cooked in slightly-spiced sugar syrup with semolina. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Sri Lankan dish of: Sri Lankan Winter Melon Candy (Puhul Dosi).
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This is a classic Sri Lankan recipe for candied wintermelon, the fruit of Benincasa hispida, the wax gourd, also called ash gourd, white gourd, winter gourd, winter melon, tallow gourd, ash pumpkin, dongah or Chinese preserving melon The wax gourd is native to South and Southeast Asia.
Ingredients:
1kg of Wintermelon/Ash Pumpkin
1kg sugar
2 tbsp semolina
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground green cardamom seeds
3–4 drops rose essence or 3 tbsp rose water
Method:
Wash the wintermelon (ash pumpkin) thoroughly and then split in half and scrape out all the seeds. Take a vegetable peeler and peel the skin off the melon.
Cut the cleaned and peeled ash pumpkin into chunks then chop in a food processor. Scraped out the pulp onto a clean tea towel and twist this to extract as much of the liquid as possible from the melon. You must get the pulp as dry as possible before proceeding to the next step.
Scrape the dried pulp into a saucepan and combine with the salt and sugar. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, cooking until all the sugar has melted and has started to thicken. At this point add the semolina and stir well to combine. You'll need to stir constantly at this point to ensure that none of the ingredients catch on the base of the pan and begin to burn.
During the final five minutes of cooking stir in the ground cardamom along with the rose water or rose essence. Stir well to make sure everything is thoroughly and evenly combined.
Now test for setting. When the syrup mixture can be placed on a plate and starts to firm up quickly, the candy is done cooking. Transfer to a baking tray lined with lightly-oiled parchment paper lined baking sheet and spreed out evenly. Gently push the edges to form a flat edge. When the candy starts to cool, score into pieces (lozenge-sized blocks).
Place in a safe place to finish hardening overnight. Cut into pieces and store in an air-tight container.
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