Gajar ka Halwa

'Tis winter, and winter brings with it an amazing array of winter vegetables. Peas, radishes, turnip, cauliflower, mustard leaves and my favorite, the red carrot. How can we be in the season of red carrots and not make the heartwarming Gajar ka Halwa.

Here's my mom's recipie for Gajar ka Halwa. This recipe is not one that can be made in a jiffy. So plan well ahead in time. It is one of the easiest desserts to make and takes very little effort.


Ingredients (Serves 8)
Red Carrot - 1 kg
Milk - 1 1/2 ltr
Sugar - 1 cup/200 gm
Ghee (clarified butter)- 3 tbsp
Almonds - 25
Elaichi (green cardamom)  10 pods (powdered)
2 cups hot water for soaking the almonds

Prepartion time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 150 mins

Method

• Peel, wash and grate the carrots.
• Soak the almonds in the hot water for two hours. Then peel the skin off and chop them up into fine juliennes.
• Take a non stick pan, add the ghee and grated carrots. Let the carrot sweat and lose its water. You know this is done when you can no longer see water at the bottom of the pan. The carrot would have reduced to 2/3rd its original volume by now.
• Add the milk, half a liter at a time. After adding each half liter, mix the carrot and milk and then add the next half litre
• When all the milk is added, let it come to a boil and reduce the flame.

• Keep cooking on low flame to let the milk reduce. Stir occasionally to ensure the halwa does not stick to the bottom of the pan (Stir once every 15-20 mins)
• When milk has reduced to 1/4th its original volume, add the almond juliennes
• Stir more frequently now to prevent the halwa from burning
• When the milk has reduced completely -(there are no more droplets of milk at the bottom of the pan), add the sugar
• The halwa will become a little wet again, keep cooking to let the water evaporate. Stir occasionally
• When water has completely evaporated, add the elaichi powder.

Variations

You can add 3/4 liter milk and 250 gm khoya instead of 1 1/2 liter milk. Add the khoya when the milk has evaporated.

If you have left over milk/khoya sweets, these can be added also in addition to/instead of the khoya.

Tips

More the milk, better the gajar ka halwa. Don't be shy to add more milk.

Be patient when letting the milk evaporate. It takes a good 2 hours.

Adjust sugar as per your taste. 200 gm is ideal for me and my family's palette.