Gajar Ka Halwa brings to mind little ornate steel bowls full of delicious, moist, beautifully textured carrot pudding garnished with slivered nuts and silver foil [varakh]. Hot ... Of course, fresh off the stove!! The typical Halwa like the one Mum makes, takes anywhere between 2-6 hours simmering away on the stove. It takes constant stirring [so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot and burn], constant adjusting of consistency [adding more milk or cream, adding more sugar] and a lot of love.
My mum always says that the longer you cook the halwa, the more sweet it becomes. Maybe it is just love after all ... the love of the person doing all the toiling away at the stove. Thanks to modern technology [microwave] and a lot of laziness [me], I have conjured up my own version of the Microwave Gajar Ka Halwa. It takes 20 minutes to cook and if you practice it enough number of times, it tastes as good as the lengthy version, I swear!!
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Microwave Gajar Ka Halwa
Preparation Time - 10 mins
Cooking Time - 20 mins
Serves 3
Ingredients
1 kg carrots, grated fine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cream
3 tbsp milk powder
2 tbsp ghee
1/4 cup cashewnuts, coarsely chopped
1 tsp cardamoms, coarsely ground
1 tsp milk masala
Method
Spread out grated carrot in a shallow microwaveable dish. Cook uncovered on high for 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients, mix well and cook uncovered on high for 12-15 minutes. the carrots should appear glossy and tender. Serve hot with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
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Thank you Sneh. In the interim I have been researching various recipes. Like you, I like to experiment. Here's one from my MICROWAVE BOOK which works. Based on 650/600 wattage.
1 cup whipping cream
4 large carrots, shredded
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbs. slivered almonds/pistas
1 tsp. ground cardamom
1. Microwave at HIGH, 15 minutes carrots, sugar, and whipping cream. Cover with a lid. Stir once in between
2. Remove lid, microwave at MED. HIGH for 20 minutes or until firm.
3. Stir in almonds and pistas or edible silver leaves.
Serve cold or warm it up at HIGH for 30 seconds.
Yields 12 to 15 servings.
Note: No butter in this recipe. Gets greasy from the cream.
Quick Tip: Add 1/2 cup mawa or 1/2 cup milk powderin step 2.
Recipe says serves 3 people. Appears there may be an error in the recipe. 1 kg. (2.2 lbs.) I tried it this morning and wasn't successful. The carrots were too much for the sugar, cream, etc. It took close to 45 minutes. The result did not look like your carrot halwa. Did you mean 1 cup of grated carrots? Please clarify.
Lydia, I am pretty sure it is 1kg. I made this a long time ago so don't remember clearly. But I just weighed a kilogram of carrots on the weighing scale and there were 5 large carrots in there. That would amount to about 2 packed cups of grated carrot. Different power levels in different microwaves could alter cooking times, but 20 minutes sounds about right. We are looking for a glazed, still very slightly crunchy carrot bits in this recipe [which is a healthier option to the cream and sugar laden slow cooked one which I absolutely love :)]. I have used less cream and it makes the dessert dry, hence the ice-cream accompaniment. I will try this again tonight and post about it in length this week with recipe adjustments.
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Hi, what is milk masala? tx sarah