Gajar halwa Type 2

We have run out of khoya/ mawa in Mumbai. This is good for many reasons. One that we have less sinful desserts to make and other there have been many stories about adulterated khoya(paper mache etc.). We are now forced to think out of box when cooking recipes that need it. Gajar halwa, not traditionally, but when made with khoya gives a great texture. The grainy granule like gajar halwa cuts the sweetness beautifully.

When my ever bankable Mrs K. mentioned to me that she has grated 1 kilo carrots for me as she spotted some really good one’s available , her excited pitch was also carrying the concern of not been able to find the khoya. She almost threw a challenge to me saying that if you go about making your own khoya then it may take hours to get the right texture. 
This means we have to park the activity for a weekend which was still 2 days away. I pushed it to a Friday evening. The challenge was that now I had frozen carrots and no khoya to deal with.

I eventually made the halwa which was as I like it, beautiful, grainy and not runny at all.


Ingredients
1 Kg carrots peeled and grated
1 litre buffalo milk
½ cup milk cream (about 2 litres milk when boiled gives you this much quantity)
2 cups sugar (300 gms)
1 tspn cardamom powder
2 tbsp cashews and raisins (add pistas if you like)
2 tspn clarified butter/ ghee
Method
1) In a large non stick pan, heat some ghee and add the grated carrots. Stir them for 10-12 min(I did this for about 15-20 min as I had frozen carrots). It is important that the carrots wilt and start leaving water and the dry up.
2) Add the cream at this stage and start stirring. Do not beat the cream and add else it will not get the curdled texture.
3) Now add the warm milk along with the dry fruits and cover the pan and let it cook. This will take about 30-45 min until all the milk is absorbed and the carrots are completely cooked.
4) Now add the sugar and cardamom powder. The sugar will melt and extract more water from the carrots to form a syrup. You will now have to keep stirring until the sugar syrup is thick and is soaked up by the carrots – about 20 min more.
5) There will be some liquid (not more than 2 tbsp) when you switch off the flame. To know that the halwa is cooked, you should check for a glossy texture on the carrots instead of dull and liquid like carrots. Add the c
6) Serve hot with vanilla icecream or chilled. 

Comments

Kalyani said…
looks good n rich too ..
veena said…
Looks great!!!As kalyani said, rich too
Gayathri Kumar said…
Absolutely delicious halwa...
Priya Suresh said…
SUper delicious irresistible halwa, i can die for it.
Chef Mireille said…
I love carrot halva. I tried a recipe I found a few years ago, but it wasn't as good as I get in the Indian sweet shop. This one looks really moist. I will definitely try.
Jayashree said…
Looks lovely....
Srivalli said…
Love gajar halwa..Great to run the BM with you!
Rajani said…
Love this! Yum yum
Suma Gandlur said…
Lovely dessert for any time.
Kavi said…
thanks so much for linking this wonderful halwa to Jingle All The Way. Looks lovely! :)
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Kavi (Edible Entertainment)

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