Gajar ka Halwa is one of the most delicious Indian desserts. However I don’t see people hyping much about this decadent sweet treat like gulab jamun and others. I tried this first in Haldiram’s and later in some restaurants as well. Even though this is not the mandatory dessert in Bengali house holds and sweet shops, we saw no harm in adopting this in our menu.
After several petitions to mom, finally she agreed to make it at home- but making just the right taste wasn’t very easy. Many restaurants use generous amount of ghee, which makes it really heavy, some others add too much sugar. We tried couple of variations, and this particular recipe was loved and approved by everyone!!
I personally do not like if the carrot loses its character fully to the pudding- the thinness of the grated pieces gets to decide that. I highly recommend to try this recipe and tweak the steps according to your preference- you will definitely love it!
Things you need
- Carrot (grated 2 cups)
- Sugar (2-3 tbsp)
- Raisins 50 g
- Cashew nuts 20 g
- Milk 1 litre
- Flour/Semolina – 2 tbsp
- Ghee/Clarified butter – 2 tbsp
- Cardamom powder – 1/4 tsp
- Cinnamon powder – 1/4 tsp
Preparation
- Wash and peel the carrots. Grate the carrots and place the grated carrots in a colander to drain the excess juice.
- Reduce the milk by boiling to half.
- Soak the raisins in water.
Procedure
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- In a pan add 1 TSP ghee and saute 2 tbsp flour or semolina in that. Pour the reduced milk into the pan when the semolina looks lightly roasted. Keep on stirring milk on low flame until it becomes thick like pudding.
- In a separate pan warm 3 tsp ghee and fry the cashew nuts in it lightly and take them out.
- Add the grated carrots in the same pan and keep it tossing until the moisture dries up.
- Add the sugar and mix it up over the flame for 2-3 mins
- Add the thickened milk to it, cardamom and cinnamon powder and stir for 2-3 mins more.
- Gajar halwa is ready now. You can put it in a nice plate and garnish with soaked raisins and roasted cashews.
