Recipe: Reminiscing with Carrot Halwa

When we are away from home, almost every meal we make brings back the memories of home. Festivals are no less. That too when we are from that wonderful generation who has witnessed and experienced festivals at their best, undoubtedly our hearts get full with those fond memories. 

Deepavali is celebrated with much pomp and show and is considered the biggest festival in Tamil Nadu. Undoubtedly, festivals bring in a different vibe and of course new dress(es), good food and family gatherings. But Deepavali is much bigger than this because of the brightness it brings along with it, yeah the fireworks undoubtedly. When I was a kid, we start prepping for the festival for almost a month before - thorough cleaning of the house, shopping for clothes and crackers and the most interesting aspect for me was preparing special sweets and savories. Mom and I used to make at least half a dozen varieties of sweets and snacks. The constants used to be muruku and mixture. 

A week before the festival, our street gets filled with enticing aromas from each house hold. As we pass through the street we can smell athirasam, mysore pak, badhusha, murukku, seedai etc. I used to run home to tell mom, what Babu patti or Ramya akka's mom are preparing for Deepavali. The excitement of trying new variety of sweets that gets published in Deepavali edition of Sunday magazine, the joy of exchanging festive delicacies with family and friends in our neighbourhood, the eagerness to watch the Deepavali special programs and latest movie (latest back then would be released 2 years ago😝) in TV were a lot different in comparison to how it is celebrated now and that too here in Canada.                              

Over the last 3 years, Deepavali had been just another day for us, at least from the human touch point. But I don't want to miss on the joy festival brings in and want my child to experience at least an iota of what we experienced during our childhood. So every year, I make it a point to prepare some special delicacies, share the joy by giving sweets to our friends, light up lamps and put on some sparklers (as those are the only crackers permitted by law in the place we live).

This year, I prepared motichoor laddus and carrot halwa for Deepavali. I have already shared the detailed recipe of laddu on my youtube channel. If you wish to watch, do check out here. Carrot halwa is a very popular Indian sweet, made using carrots. It is called Gaajar ka halwa or Carrot Halwa. It is a traditional North Indian dessert made during the fall season, using red carrots which are available in abundance during this season. Almost every North Indian household will prepare this sweet around this time of the year. The colour of carrot halwa, bright orange goes well with the autumn season, bringing warmth with it and uplifting the festive spirit. 

I had some store bought condensed milk at home and hence thought of putting it to use in preparing the  halwa. You can make it using with full fat milk too. I used the regular carrots instead of the red carrots (gaajar) and below is the process how I make carrot halwa. 

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Ingredients:

• Grated carrots - 2 cups 
• Full fat milk - 6 cups
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Ghee (clarified butter) - 2 tbsps
• Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
• Cashew (chopped) - 2 tbsp
• Almonds (chopped) - 2 tbsp
• Raisins - 2 tbsp

Procedure:

• Peel the carrot skin, wash and grate them
• To a heavy bottomed pan, add a table spoon of ghee and roast cashews, almonds and raisins until they turn light golden brown and set them aside
• To the same pan, add the grated carrot and fry until the raw smell is gone
• Now, pour the milk and cook on high flame. Once the milk starts to boil, reduce the heat and cook on medium flame by stirring occasionally  
• Cook until the milk evaporates
• Once all the milk has evaporated, add sugar. As the sugar melts, the halwa turns gooey once again 
• Continue to cook until the halwa thickens by stirring constantly
• When the halwa thickens add cardamom powder, 1 tablespoon of ghee and roasted dry fruits and mix well
• Serve warm or chilled. Both the ways, carrot halwa tastes amazing.

Tips:

• Red carrots have a distinct flavour and is preferred to prepare this sweet. If red carrots aren't available, we can make the halwa using regular (orange) ones as well. Whichever variety it is, choose fresh carrots to prepare this recipe, otherwise the flavour and texture will be slightly off
• When you are making a bigger batch, grating carrots can be tedious. Food processor comes in handy in such case and Ninja food processor has been a life saver for me. You can check out the product in this link.
• In this recipe, you may replace half the quantity of milk with condensed milk. This helps to reduce the amount of time taken to prepare the halwa. 
• If you are using sweetened condensed milk, then reduce the sugar quantity I have mentioned in the ingredients
• Few people pressure cook to speed up the process. On the other hand, when the carrots are slowly cooked in the milk, it brings in a beautiful texture and taste to the halwa. So it's definitely worth the effort to follow the process I have described above.
• Most importantly be cautious and stir the halwa occasionally so that the bottom doesn't get burned
• Finally to top it off, serve carrot halwa with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. If you haven't tried this before, I can assure you, you will fall in love with this combination.