Petha

Petha
Kesar Petha variant
Course	Dessert
Place of origin	Indian subcontinent
Region or state	Agra, Uttar Pradesh
Associated cuisine	Indian cuisine
Invented	uncertain
Main ingredients	Ash gourd, sugar
Variations	Kesar Petha, Angoori Petha, Dry Petha, Chocolate Petha, Paan Petha, Gulab Petha
Food energy (per serving)	~250 kcal
Media: Petha

Petha (Hindi: पेठा pronounced [ˈpeːʈʰa]) is a translucent soft candy from the Indian subcontinent made from ash gourd or white pumpkin. It is simply called petha in Hindi and Urdu.^[1]^[2]

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Preparation

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 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 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.^[3]

With growing demand and innovation, more varieties of the original preparation are available. Many flavoured variants are available, e.g. kesar petha, angoori petha etc. There are some other variations based on content, one with coconut mixed, another with some nuts put into it. Sometimes kewda essence is used to flavour petha.^[4]^[5]

History

Petha is said to have been in the subcontinent under various names like Oal and Oal ka Murabba in places like modern-day Jharkhand and Bihar. There is a legend that says that it originated in Mughal kitchens under Shah Jahan and was used to feed the workers constructing the Taj Mahal, but it's highly unlikely considering that there is no mention of Petha in cookbooks of Shah Jahan like Nuskha-e-Shahjahani. There are mentions of dishes resembling Petha before the Mughals came to the subcontinent. Petha is also not like typical Mughal sweets and dishes which were rich in milk and mawa.^[6]^[2]^[5]^[7]

Controversy

In Agra, countless tiny businesses produce different varieties of the treat for visitors who come to view the Taj Mahal every year. When the government designated an 80-kilometer (50-mile) radius around the Taj Mahal as the "Taj Trapezium Zone" and outlawed the use of coal-powered industry in that area, the city's iconic confection became a source of dispute.

The Taj's white marble, which is readily stained by air pollution, was intended to be protected by the rule, but local petha producers, some of whom use coal to boil their sugar syrup, argued that the law damaged their operations.

Despite the controversy, the sweets are still abundant in bright rows in the sweet shops along the popular tourist route that leads to the Taj's entrance.

References

^ T. R. Gopalakrishnan Vegetable Crops, p. 138, at Google Books
^ ^a ^b Sharma, Sudhirendar (12 October 2019). "Name, place, confection, thing". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
^ "Petha Recipe | How to Make Petha | Agra Ka Petha". NDTV Food. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
^ Ammas cooking Archived 2013-05-26 at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b "Food Secrets: The Sweet Stories Behind The Legendary Agra Petha and Mysore Pak". The Better India. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
^ Daftuar, Swati (9 June 2012). "Food Safari: in search of Agra Petha". The Hindu. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
^ Mishra, Ishita (31 August 2014). "Petha industry not harming Taj: Kalraj". Times of India. Agra. Retrieved 29 June 2015.

This page was last edited on 28 December 2023, at 14:09

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