Chapter 6 – Gajar Ka Halwa

Is there anyone who doesn’t love gajar ka halwa? Is that even theoretically possible?

‘Ghee?’ Ammi asked in a very professional manner. Sometimes,
on Doordarshan, the afternoon programmes would include a cookery
show and Tahera would watch them entranced, wondering how
those women had the confidence to face the cameras. Tahera didn’t
know that they were facing the camera. For her, it was as if those
women were facing another TV on their side. For a moment, she
looked at her mother with admiration. If Ammi was asked to host
a cookery show, she’d do an excellent job of it.

Gajar Ka Halwa

Ingredients

Grated carrots – ½ Kg

Sugar – 750 gms

Khoya – 1 cup (200 gms)

Milk – 1 cup

Ghee – A few tablespoons

Nuts/raisins

Cardamom and Cinnamon – 2 each

Method

• Heat ghee in a thick bottomed vessel.
• Add cardamom and cinnamon in the melted ghee.
• Add grated carrots and stir well.
• Cook on medium heat until carrots become translucent.
• Continue stirring for some more time.
• Add milk slowly and keep stirring till carrots have absorbed all the milk.
• Crumble the khoya and add it. Continue stirring.
• When carrots looked fully cooked, add sugar.
• Stir properly, because at this stage the sugar starts sputtering angrily and you can get some nasty burns if you’re not careful.
• Lower the heat and continue stirring, mixing everything together. If you stop stirring for even half a minute, it will start getting stuck at the bottom of the pan.
• After sometime the halwa will glisten. Take the halwa off from the heat.
• Sprinkle chopped nuts.

For added rich taste and if you’re not really bothered about calories (calories-shmalories, heh!) you can fry the nuts in ghee and sprinkle them over the halwa.