Gajar ka halwa

GAZAR KA HALWA

Winters are about to say good bye, in a way that those colourful fresh vegetables won’t be  available in the market soon.  I went to my regular grocery this fine Sunday morning and got tempted by red carrots across the counter. I thought of yummy Gajar ka Halwa. Although it’s a very common Indian dish and my generous colleagues usually offer me a portion of their Halwa, that I dint think of cooking it this winters.

But the charm of my recipe is that it’s a quick 15minutes recipe. Especially for the people like us who don’t have the time to go through proper traditional recipe where the carrot is cooked in milk for hours.

The innovation in my recipe is that I used condensed milk instead of whole milk and mava ( khoya).  I have actually replaced khoya in my kitchen with condensed milk (milkmaid, mithai maid) because the market these days is flooded with adulterated khoya.

Here is the recipe

You need

Carrots  250gms (should be red, enriched with Vitamin E,A)

Milk 10ml (yes just ten ml.)

Condensed milk (50gms)

Cardamom powder a pinch

Shredded almonds, coconut and dry fruits.

Blanch  the carrots in hot water. (YESSS! I blanch them first. It saves the milk quantity, hance calories. And the blanched carrot is easy to shred as well) Grate them.

In a pan take milk. Add carrots, cardamom powder and condensed milk.  Heat till the milk reduces.

Garnish with dry fruits.

Trust me:

The recipe is quick and easy

Calorie count is reduced. Since we are using sweetened condensed milk, no extra sugar is needed.

Adulterated khoya (mava) is avoided.

It tastes almost same, except that u miss the flavour of Desi Ghee. Which can be added. 

Chocolate Mousse

This Diwali was little unusual for me. I have never been such sad on diwali.
missing home, broken hand, incapable of doing routine chores made me all day grump.
diwali had always been one of my fav festivals. loads of mithai(sweets) crackers, lights, lamps and rangoli.

This year due to broken shoulder i cud not do all those fancy fancy things i loved to do.
the morning used to be fresh and vibrant with rangoli colors. post rangoli loads of home made mithai like  ladoos, barfi, kaju katri... missed all that fun.

i was lying on my couch grump and cold. then i just felt of making some dessert atleast for my friends.
i looked into my freeze and thought of a quick recipe.
then i came up with chocolate mousse.
although its not a mithai for the occasion and people prefer it as a potluck dessert.
here goes the recipe.

100 gm Bittersweet (cooking) Chocolate  • 3 tbsp  Sugar • 1 cup Heavy Cream • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract • 2 Egg Yolks  • Heat 2/3 cup of cream in pan over low flame until it just begins to steam. • In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. • Add half portion of the hot cream, whisking constantly, until the mixture is thoroughly combined. • Add the warm egg-cream blend back into the rest hot cream in the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly for a few more minutes. make sure the eggs dont get scrambled • Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and melted chocolate. • Chill the chocolate custard thoroughly. • Beat with the help of electric whisker remaining 1-1/3 cups of cream in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. • Thoroughly stir ½ cup of the whipped cream into the chilled chocolate custard, and then gently fold in the remaining cream.  serve chilled. garnish with grated chocolate