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Carrot Halva (Gajar Halwa)

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Gajar Halwa (Photo by mtsn/flickr)
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Gajar Halwa (Photo by mtsn/flickr)

A favorite Indian dessert, this carrot pudding is typically eaten hot with cold vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients

500 g/1 lb carrots
60 g/2 oz ghee
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom or 6 drops cardamom extract
375 g/12 oz/1 1/2 cups sugar
125 ml/4 fl oz/1/2 cup hot water
250 ml/8 fl oz/1 cup cream
4 tablespoons dried milk powder or khoa
2 tablespoons blanched pistachios or almond slivers
edible silver leaf to garnish (optional)

Directions

Wash and peel carrots and grate them finely. Heat ghee in a heavy pan
and add the carrots. Cook uncovered over medium heat, stirring. Turn
heat very low, cover and cook until carrots are soft and almost all the
liquid evaporated.

Make a syrup with the sugar and water, add syrup to carrots and stir in
the cream and milk powder or khoa, blending well. Stir constantly over
medium heat until mixture is thick and comes away from side of pan in
one mass. Stir in cardamom. Turn onto a buttered dish, smooth top with
buttered foil and allow to cool. Decorate with pistachios or almonds.
For a festive occasion, flutter silver leaf onto the surface. Cut into
small diamonds or squares for serving.

Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)

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