Gajar Ka Halwa

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! I'm still recovering from a weekend of pigging out on anything I could lay my hands on! From massive bowls of spicy Chinese food to butter chicken and paranthas and a gorgeous walnut, date and honey cake that I baked this past Sunday! Needless to say, my tummy is quite pleased and will soon be subject to several hundred crunches to keep it from going all 'Punjabi' on me!

Speaking of things that make tummies go 'Punjabi', few are more effective than a nice rich dessert, and in my opinion, most other desserts pale in comparison to a big bowl of piping hot gajar ka halwa! (An Indian sweet dish made with carrots, for my non-Indian readers.) Speaking of gajar ka halwa, I made a batch last week and following are the excerpts of the conversation with my roommate that followed: 

Me: Wow, this is good! I'm now officially a Punjabi mom!

Roommate: Hahaha! Yes!

Me: I only wish the carrots weren't orange. It would have looked nicer red, like the one in India instead of this orange one.

Roommate: Oh yes! But how do you make a red halwa?

Me: ...

Roommate: (looks expectantly)

Me: Ummm.. You just use red carrots.

Roommate: Oh..

(awkward silence)

For my Gajar Ka Halwa, you will need the following:
 

Carrots	1 kg
Milk	2 pints (that's about 1.1 lt.)
Green cardamom	6 pods
Sugar	10-12 tsp
Almonds	small handful
Cashews	small handful
Raisins	small handful
Ghee (clarified butter)	couple of dollops

Prep:

1. Wash, peel and grate the carrots. (If you can't do this using a mixer grinder attachment, you are going to be the proud owner of an impressive set of biceps!)
2. Roughly chop the almonds and cashews.

Method:

1. Turn the gas on.
2. Bung a heavy bottomed pan on. (This is to ensure that your halwa doesn't burn and stick to the bottom of the pan.)
3. Pour in the milk.
4. Drop in the cardamom pods.
5. Crank the gas up to high.
6. Watch it like a hawk! (And I mean like a hawk, if you stop to even dab your watering eyes, or look at the time, or anything that requires you to look away for even one split second, the milk will boil over and you will have a very nice mess to clean!)
7. Drop the heat to low, the second the milk starts to boil. (Blowing on the surface of the milk will help to keep the milk from boiling over.)
8. Slide in the grated carrots.
9. Bump the heat up a tiny bit.
10. Not that much.
11. Little less.
12. Little more.
13. There!
14. Let the mixture simmer and bubble until all the milk has almost all evaporated. (This will take over an hour. Move the mixture around every 5-10 minutes to make sure nothing is sticking or bubbling out.)
15. Once the milk is almost all gone, add in the sugar and mix it well.
16. Turn on another burner.
17. Bung on a small pan.
18. Drop in the ghee dollops.
19. Count to 20.
20. Add in the almonds, cashews and rasins.
21. Toast for a couple of minutes.
22. Turn the smaller burner off.
23. Mix the toasted dry fruits and ghee in with the carrots.
24. Add in a tiny bit more ghee.
25. Cook for a few minutes.
26. Turn the gas off.
27. Beam proudly.
28. Serve.
29. Stuff face.
30. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish. 

Tip: Only eat this hot. Stuff with ghee in it does not taste nearly as good when it is eaten cold.

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy.