Happy fall, y'all!

Gajar (carrot) halwa

I wanted to make some sweet for prasad on Ganesh Chaturthi so I started digging in the fridge and pantry to see what ingredients I’d on hand. Since we get a lot of carrots in the northwest my fridge was abundant in the little red sticks. Gajar halwa is the first thing that came to my mind because it’s DH’s favorite! Now the traditional ways of making gajar halwa are very time taking and I didn’t have too much time on me. Then I remembered that my mom had made the most delicious gajar halwa using microwave. So I dig up her recipe (here). I tell you – that halwa was such a hit! Everybody just loved it and it’s so easy to make! I followed the recipe to the T, except I did microwave 5 extra minutes towards the end because the halwa was a little wet. I think the timing towards the end would differ a little bit (~ 5 minutes) depending on the kind of khoya you get. This time we got something which was softer than usual and seemed to have more liquid content. Mostly we get the Nanak khoya which is more solid.

Here are the ingredients in oz. for my friends on this side of the earth. The quantity was sufficient for around 6 “good” servings.

• 16.5 oz carrots
• 7 oz  khoya
• 1 tbsp ghee
• 1 cup milk
• 7 oz sugar (yes I upped it a little because the sugar here is less sweet than the one in India)
• 2 tbsp chopped nuts (I used cashews and almonds)

If you’ve the food processor, don’t forget to use it for grating the carrots! It’s such a breeze!