Carrot Halwa ~ A popular winter dessert

My appa is here with us for a short stay, from Gurgaon. Among the list of items to be sent through Appa, I asked Amma to send some carrots too. Yes the red, juicy Delhi carrots. Those variety is hard to get in my place. You guessed it right, I wanted to make carrot halwa. Its long time since I tasted halwa made with the red carrots. I made a batch on the same day Appa arrived.

Appa likes to chop veggies and during his stay, I am relieved of that job. I am not the kind of person who is ready to entrust the veggie chopping to anybody who offers to do the same. But Appa insists on doing it. And needless to say he grated the carrots. Half the job is done. I proceeded with the cooking. I made in two batches on different days. On the first day, I cooked the carrot in MW and rest of the process on stove top. The next day, I made it entirely in the microwave oven. I did not find MW making the job easier. The time taken was almost the same. May be a gain of 10 minutes or so in the MW. But opening the MW door, carefully taking the glass bowl and giving a stir at regular intervals, made me feel stove top is the better method. I shall give how I did bothways.

Ingredients

Grated carrot - 3 cups

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Ghee 3 tblspn

Cardamom powder - 1 tspn

Cashew/raisins - 10 each


Method

Grate the carrot using the large eyed grater. This will ensure the carrots don't get cooked mushy. And you will be able to bite into the pieces while you eat. But if you prefer a softer kind of halwa, grate it fine.

Cook grated carrot and milk in pressure cooker for one whistle. Or it can be cooked on stove top, till the carrot is fork tender and the milk is almost dried up. I cooked it in MW for 8 mimutes. In the kadai, heat a tablespoon of ghee and fry the cashews and raisins. Transfer the cooked carrot along with milk to a thick bottomed vessel of kadai. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for low flame. Keep giving a stir now and then. When the milk and sugar is fully absorbed by the carrots, add ghee and powdered cardamom. The mixture should not turn too dry but should be moist. Finally garnish with fried cashews and raisins.

Serve warm, ideally with a scoop of vanilla icecream.


Microwave method

Cook carrot and milk for 8 minutes. Stir in sugar and cook for 20 minutes. Give a stir at 5 minute intervals. Add ghee and cardamom and cook for 6 minutes. Garnish with fried cashews and raisins. I have used carrot, milk and sugar in the ratio 3:1:1. If you want it to be sweeter, you can increase the sugar by 1/4 cup.