With carrots in the season it’s time to make yummy carrot halwa, soups and of course carrot cake!
Halwa is a hindi/Urdhu word for a sweet dish. Some like it firm, some like it soft,some like it cold and some warm. The carrot halwa below is soft version usually eaten warm with vanilla ice cream. You can adjust the quantity to your preference, below is pretty much a lot.
Ingredients
6 cups finely grated carrots ( I like doing mine in a food processor)
4 cups milk
Cook the carrots in milk, well covered till it is soft on medium heat. Make sure to baby sit it to avoid spilling and burning To it add
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom powder
1/4 piece nutmeg, finely crushed in mortar and pestle
1 teaspoon vanilla essence ( my secret ingredient)
1/2 cup grated khoya ( this is milk solids found in South Asian stores)
Later
1 cup sugar ( if you need sweeter you can add more sugar to your preference)
10-15 almonds slivered
Mix in the carrot-milk mixture and while still on the heat, keep stirring till it is well combined. Switch the heat off .I usually use a stick blender to further crush the carrots. Once blended add sugar and switch the heat of the stove to low and let the carrots cook in sugar, keep stirring and mixing. It will at least take 15 minutes to combine the mixture well. Switch the heat off, serve the carrot halwa in a dish, garnish with slivered almonds and serve it with vanilla ice cream. Hard work that definitely pays off!
*If you can’t find the khoya, you can substitute the milk with the 35% fresh cream.It will be just as good in taste. Or another option is use milk as per recipe, then instead of khoya add 1/2 can condensed milk.
