Gajar ka halwa
Gajar ka halwa gajar ka halwa Gajar ka halwa Gajar ka halwa Gajar ka halwa

Gajar ka halwa

    I would compare preparing gajar ka halwa to making tea in India….everyone has their own ways of making tea…some boil it for five minutes, some just brew it for five minutes, some use half part water and half part milk,, some use just one teaspoon milk for a big mug of tea …etc  etc...and every way tastes great….

Gajar ka halwa

       What prompted me to put this recipe on the blog is that many kind friends have complimented me generously for my Gajar ka halwa. Infact a friend of mine was so sweet to even compare my Gajar halwa with her mother’s preparation.Wow !!! that  is the ultimate compliment I could get.

   Well this recipe needs  to be shared so that incase you are a little unsatisfied with your preparation you could try this one, may be you would prefer this method of preparing the “Gajar ka halwa”

Gajar ka halwa

     We begin by grating one and half kilos of red carrots. Now I must insist that it should not be fine grating, rather coarse or thick shreds. I prefer the food processor do to it for me….though as children I remember helping our mother in  taking turns in grating kilos and kilos of carrots.

    We will make a reasonable amount , so one and a half kilos is the maximum that we will handle for this one time. You could take half a kilo for the first time and adjust the rest of the things accordingly.

   Pile up the grated carrots in a “heavy bottomed” preferably aluminium kadai. I am an expert in handling huge amounts in a smaller kadai, but I would suggest that take a bigger kadai so that your carrot and milk fills up ¾ th of the kadai.

          Pour one and half litres of thick milk / full cream milk / full fat milk. Keep the flame on high and keep stirring till the milk starts boiling.

           Now begins the difficult part ( the manually grating of the carrots was the easiest , trust me). You have to keep stirring the carrot milk mixture for half an hour to forty five minutes, alternating to low and high flame till all the milk dries up. Yes , you have to keep stirring the carrot- milk mixture till the one and half litres of milk reduces to ….see in the picture….

       Add one can of 400ml of condensed milk , stir a little and follow with sugar. Now I must add here that for this quantity I have put 500 grams of sugar but even 300 grams is fine.I have a very sweet tooth and I believe that when you are eating something sweet then why go easy on the sugar….so maybe you could go in between and add 400 grams…its entirely upto you.

          Now don’t panic if the quantity is back to where you started an hour ago….I mean some people are like I just dried this stuff to half and now its back …stay cool….the sugar and condensed milk will dry up in no time and you will have this dense mixture.

       Add one fourth cup of desi ghee and on medium flame stir, toss and roast the halwa. The right word for this action is “Bhoono” in Hindi….and well you just have to do it for atleast ten minutes.Its tiring but trust me this bit is as important to get that caramalised and delicious taste. Add three fourth teaspoon of green cardamon powder. Toss the mixture.

          The "Gajar ka halwa "is ready. You could garnish the Gajar ka Halwa with chopped nuts, but I prefer it plain.

Gajar ka halwa

        lets make a list of the ingredients once again

 1.  1.5 kilo grated carrots
  2. 1.5 litres full fat milk
  3.  500 grams sugar
  4.  400 ml condensed milk
  5.  3/4 th teaspoon green cardamon powder
  6.  1/4 th cup pure ghee

carrots· condensed milk· desserts· Indian sweets

Gajar ka halwa
Gajar ka halwa gajar ka halwa Gajar ka halwa Gajar ka halwa Gajar ka halwa

Gajar ka halwa

    I would compare preparing gajar ka halwa to making tea in India….everyone has their own ways of making tea…some boil it for five minutes, some just brew it for five minutes, some use half part water and half part milk,, some use just one teaspoon milk for a big mug of tea …etc  etc...and every way tastes great….

Gajar ka halwa

       What prompted me to put this recipe on the blog is that many kind friends have complimented me generously for my Gajar ka halwa. Infact a friend of mine was so sweet to even compare my Gajar halwa with her mother’s preparation.Wow !!! that  is the ultimate compliment I could get.

   Well this recipe needs  to be shared so that incase you are a little unsatisfied with your preparation you could try this one, may be you would prefer this method of preparing the “Gajar ka halwa”

Gajar ka halwa

     We begin by grating one and half kilos of red carrots. Now I must insist that it should not be fine grating, rather coarse or thick shreds. I prefer the food processor do to it for me….though as children I remember helping our mother in  taking turns in grating kilos and kilos of carrots.

    We will make a reasonable amount , so one and a half kilos is the maximum that we will handle for this one time. You could take half a kilo for the first time and adjust the rest of the things accordingly.

   Pile up the grated carrots in a “heavy bottomed” preferably aluminium kadai. I am an expert in handling huge amounts in a smaller kadai, but I would suggest that take a bigger kadai so that your carrot and milk fills up ¾ th of the kadai.

          Pour one and half litres of thick milk / full cream milk / full fat milk. Keep the flame on high and keep stirring till the milk starts boiling.

           Now begins the difficult part ( the manually grating of the carrots was the easiest , trust me). You have to keep stirring the carrot milk mixture for half an hour to forty five minutes, alternating to low and high flame till all the milk dries up. Yes , you have to keep stirring the carrot- milk mixture till the one and half litres of milk reduces to ….see in the picture….

       Add one can of 400ml of condensed milk , stir a little and follow with sugar. Now I must add here that for this quantity I have put 500 grams of sugar but even 300 grams is fine.I have a very sweet tooth and I believe that when you are eating something sweet then why go easy on the sugar….so maybe you could go in between and add 400 grams…its entirely upto you.

          Now don’t panic if the quantity is back to where you started an hour ago….I mean some people are like I just dried this stuff to half and now its back …stay cool….the sugar and condensed milk will dry up in no time and you will have this dense mixture.

       Add one fourth cup of desi ghee and on medium flame stir, toss and roast the halwa. The right word for this action is “Bhoono” in Hindi….and well you just have to do it for atleast ten minutes.Its tiring but trust me this bit is as important to get that caramalised and delicious taste. Add three fourth teaspoon of green cardamon powder. Toss the mixture.

          The "Gajar ka halwa "is ready. You could garnish the Gajar ka Halwa with chopped nuts, but I prefer it plain.

Gajar ka halwa

        lets make a list of the ingredients once again

 1.  1.5 kilo grated carrots
  2. 1.5 litres full fat milk
  3.  500 grams sugar
  4.  400 ml condensed milk
  5.  3/4 th teaspoon green cardamon powder
  6.  1/4 th cup pure ghee

Til chikki / sesame and jaggery candy

“The  thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest”.

                                        William Blake

The golden  fields , galore with the promise of a good harvest , the winter season coming to an end , high spirits and festivity  in the air.

     Here comes lohri…the harvest festival of the Punjabis.

   Amongst the many sweets and delicacies prepared on this day , the one ubiquitous sweet is the “til chikki”. 
Til chikki is thrown in the bonfire while singing songs of celebration. Til chikki is made with sugar and jaggery both .It can be prepared in a matter of minutes.

Here is how you can make til chikki at home.

Ingredients for making til chikki:

1.    100 grams sesame seeds / til

2.    100 grams jaggery

3.     2 tablespoons pure ghee

 Method of making til chikki:

1.    Roast the sesame seeds / til in a heavy bottomed pan on a low flame for about five minutes till a few of them start to make a popping sound.

2.     Remove from the pan and transfer in another bowl.

3.    In the same pan add two tablesoons of ghee and the jaggery pieces.

4.     The jaggery will begin to melt , keep stirring till it melts completely.

5.     Add the sesame seeds / til and stir to mix evenly.

6.     Transfer on a greased aluminium plate or any flat dish lined with aluminium foil and liberally grease the surface. Now you must apply a lot of ghee on the aluminium foil so that the chikki comes off easily.

7.     Roll it flat with a rolling pin and cut into squares while the til chikki is still hot.

8.     As soon as the  til chikki cools , transfer into an airtight box. The til chikki can stay for weeks .Serve the delicious til chikki to friends and relatives on Lohri or after dinner .

Indian sweets· jaggery· sesame seeds

Til chikki / sesame and jaggery candy

“The  thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest”.

                                        William Blake

The golden  fields , galore with the promise of a good harvest , the winter season coming to an end , high spirits and festivity  in the air.

     Here comes lohri…the harvest festival of the Punjabis.

   Amongst the many sweets and delicacies prepared on this day , the one ubiquitous sweet is the “til chikki”. 
Til chikki is thrown in the bonfire while singing songs of celebration. Til chikki is made with sugar and jaggery both .It can be prepared in a matter of minutes.

Here is how you can make til chikki at home.

Ingredients for making til chikki:

1.    100 grams sesame seeds / til

2.    100 grams jaggery

3.     2 tablespoons pure ghee

 Method of making til chikki:

1.    Roast the sesame seeds / til in a heavy bottomed pan on a low flame for about five minutes till a few of them start to make a popping sound.

2.     Remove from the pan and transfer in another bowl.

3.    In the same pan add two tablesoons of ghee and the jaggery pieces.

4.     The jaggery will begin to melt , keep stirring till it melts completely.

5.     Add the sesame seeds / til and stir to mix evenly.

6.     Transfer on a greased aluminium plate or any flat dish lined with aluminium foil and liberally grease the surface. Now you must apply a lot of ghee on the aluminium foil so that the chikki comes off easily.

7.     Roll it flat with a rolling pin and cut into squares while the til chikki is still hot.

8.     As soon as the  til chikki cools , transfer into an airtight box. The til chikki can stay for weeks .Serve the delicious til chikki to friends and relatives on Lohri or after dinner .

Summer at Saloh and Aata ka halwa

As a kid I had seen a picture in a calendar covering the most beautiful hillstations of India. I had particularly liked one picture of a makeshift wooden bridge on a stream .We visited a village by the name Saloh in Himachal  last summers and there I found something exactly like the picture I had seen more than two decades back.

 What I found most alluring in the villages of Himachal was that the golden fields of Wheat would come right upto the doorstep .So people would be sipping tea in their verandah and a few steps away were these golden beauties ready to be harvested.

   If a simple camera could capture such beautiful snaps imagine what a hi-tech camera  could do.

Wheat forms the staple diet of the north Indians and now I am going to present before you a simple yet most popular sweet pudding made with whole wheat flour.

There are innumerable ways of making the same sweet and trust me they are one better than the other. This proportion of the ingredients is followed by a dear friend Anita and is so convenient to make  that I decided to put it on the blog. Infact Anita is the one making the halwa in the pictures while I photographed it.

 Ingredients

You could use any measuring cup for this.

1.    ¾ cup ghee / clarified butter

2.    1 cup whole wheat flour

3.      ½ cup water ( infact a tablespoon less would be better)

4.      ¾ cup sugar

5.     Cashews , kishmish  and  almonds for garnishing ( optional)

Method

1.    Warm the ghee is a heavy bottomed pan.

2.    Add the flour in one go and keep stirring on low flame till the wheat starts giving out a pleasant aroma and turns one shade darker.

3.    Turn the gas off and add the water . Keep stirring and turn the gas on ,keep the flame low.

4.   As soon as the mixture starts to stick together and turns into a ball ,that will take about 20 seconds add the sugar and keep stirring for say about 30 seconds more till the sugar gets dissolved.

5.   Add the garnishing while the sweet is in the pan or decorate later to your choice.

I guess it goes without saying to serve it piping hot.

desserts· Indian sweets· whole wheat flour

Summer at Saloh and Aata ka halwa

As a kid I had seen a picture in a calendar covering the most beautiful hillstations of India. I had particularly liked one picture of a makeshift wooden bridge on a stream .We visited a village by the name Saloh in Himachal  last summers and there I found something exactly like the picture I had seen more than two decades back.

 What I found most alluring in the villages of Himachal was that the golden fields of Wheat would come right upto the doorstep .So people would be sipping tea in their verandah and a few steps away were these golden beauties ready to be harvested.

   If a simple camera could capture such beautiful snaps imagine what a hi-tech camera  could do.

Wheat forms the staple diet of the north Indians and now I am going to present before you a simple yet most popular sweet pudding made with whole wheat flour.

There are innumerable ways of making the same sweet and trust me they are one better than the other. This proportion of the ingredients is followed by a dear friend Anita and is so convenient to make  that I decided to put it on the blog. Infact Anita is the one making the halwa in the pictures while I photographed it.

 Ingredients

You could use any measuring cup for this.

1.    ¾ cup ghee / clarified butter

2.    1 cup whole wheat flour

3.      ½ cup water ( infact a tablespoon less would be better)

4.      ¾ cup sugar

5.     Cashews , kishmish  and  almonds for garnishing ( optional)

Method

1.    Warm the ghee is a heavy bottomed pan.

2.    Add the flour in one go and keep stirring on low flame till the wheat starts giving out a pleasant aroma and turns one shade darker.

3.    Turn the gas off and add the water . Keep stirring and turn the gas on ,keep the flame low.

4.   As soon as the mixture starts to stick together and turns into a ball ,that will take about 20 seconds add the sugar and keep stirring for say about 30 seconds more till the sugar gets dissolved.

5.   Add the garnishing while the sweet is in the pan or decorate later to your choice.

I guess it goes without saying to serve it piping hot.