When milk is reduced and volume is almost half, add sugar. Mix well
The mixture turns a little watery again. Keep stirring and make sure milk does not stick to the bottom of the pan
Add elaichi powder and mix well
In another small pan, heat remaining ghee, add cashews and roast them till light golden
Add raisins and once they plump up a bit remove cashews and raisins off heat
Once halwa has absorbed most of the liquid, pour in the ghee roasted cashews and raisins
Serve warm or at room temperature
Notes
Add grated halwa immediately to ghee in the pan, lauki or sorekayi tends to turn brown because of oxidation owing to its high iron content
Adjust sugar according to your taste. I generally add a little less for halwas especially for vegetable based halwas like carrot or lauki so the vegetable flavour also is highlighted
Keep on low flame throughout while making halwa
Add semi-skimmed milk if you want instead of whole milk
Dry roast cashews and raisins to further reduce calories in this recipe. But roasted in ghee gives the best aroma
I like to add more elaichi, reduce to 5-6 if you want
Double or triple this recipe if you want
Do not discard the pith and tender seeds from the halwa. I will soon post a dosa and saasme(raitha) recipe for its use
Recipe by Food Of Interest at https://foodofinterest.com/lauki-halwa/