Gajjar Ka Halwa - Pakistani Carrot Halwa

While growing up in Pakistan, Gajjar ka Halwa was a winter staple in our home. Carrots in Pakistan were a seasonal item so ammi regularly made it during winter season as the new carrot crop hit the market. These days the carrots are available year around but ammi still makes carrot halwa only in winters. This halwa is calorie laden and heavy in nature as it is laboriously cooked for hours in full cream milk, ghee or butter and plenty of sugar. Not very friendly to cook or eat in summers when the mercury hits 40 degrees all across Pakistan. Winters however are short but intense. The short chilly days bring a craving for sugary tea and for buttery, sweet slow cooked halwa. Many times Abu’s friends came over to our place for afternoon tea only to have this halwa. The call to confirm a visit will have a rather specific query regarding gajjar ka halwa’s availability.  Such was the popularity of ammi’s gajjar ka halwa.

Ammi never used butter or ghee to make this halwa. The cream skimmed from the daily supply of fresh milk was collected for days. Once the desired stock of cream was available, it found itself in a  gigantic daigcha ( Cooking Pan) slowly simmering away with naturally sweet red grated carrots and sugar for hours till the cream turned in to ghee while cooking the carrots to perfection during the process. I am sharing the recipe which has some modifications due to unavailability of fresh cream.  I recently made gajjar ka halwa for a friend’s parents; the delightful feedback exceeded my expectations.    

Ingredients:

Carrots – 2 kgs (grated)

Butter -250 grams

Full Cream Milk – 1 Liter

Full Cream – 250 ml

Sugar – 1 ¼ cup

Green Cardamoms – 5-6 whole (crush them gentle to open the pods)

Garnish : Slivered Almonds – handful  &  Edible Silver Foil – 3-4 for garnish.

Procedure:

Utensil – Non Stick Cooking pan (size atleast 6-8 liter). The procedure to make halwa is pretty simple but a bit time consuming.

1. Mix all ingredients in a large nonstick cooking pan and let it cook on the highest heat.
2. Let the mixture boil and allow the liquid ingredients to dry. Stir regularly with a wooden spoon.
3. As the mixture starts drying up, the boiling bubbles will jump out of the cooking pan. Protect your hands. You will need to clean your stove later.
4. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon till all liquid dries up and the butter comes out on the sides. Be careful not to let it burn at the bottom. Your wooden spoon will be able to stand straight once you stick it in to the carrots. (see photos)
5. Once the halwa cools down transfer it to a serving bowl and garnish with slivered almonds and silver foil.
6. The cooking takes about 2 hours depending on how efficient your stove is.

Gulab Jaman

In my part of the world every celebration is accompanied with a dessert. Be it a wedding, an engagement, a birth, a promotion, a graduation, purchase of a house or a new car or festival of Eid, our happy moments are incomplete without sharing of the traditional desserts or Mithais with our friends and family. And nothing is more loved on such occasions than the humble Gulab Jamans. It is one of my favorite Pakistani dessert.

In Pakistan, Gulab Jaman - a methai (sweets) is never made at home. Specialized methai makers called halwayees make these treasured and celebrated sweets. So while celebrating,  one always buys these sweets from the best halwayee (methai maker) in town. My favorite methai maker has been Nirala sweets since as long as I can remember. No one makes better methai than them. I had to learn how to make Gulab Jamans at home after moving away from Pakistan as I could not buy them in market anymore.

I am sharing the recipe that has knowledge assimilation from various resources. Pakistan has just gone through a historic election and I am celebrating hope for a better Pakistan.  Insha Allah – God Willing. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

For Dough;

Powdered Milk – ½ cup

Yogurt – 2 tbsp

Flour: 2 tbsp

Butter – 1 tbsp (melted)

Baking soda – ¼ tsp

For sugar syrup:

Sugar –  1 cup

Water – 2 cups

Saffron  - 5-6 strands

Rose water – 4 tbsp (I am using Khevra water as I was out of rose water)

Green Cardamom – 6 (crushed)

Oil – for deep frying.

Method:

Step 1 : Make the sugar syrup. Add sugar, water, saffron, green cardamom in a saucepan and bring to boil. Let it simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes. Keep warm.

Step 2: Make the dough. I use a kneading machine to do that. If you have a stand mixer with hook attachment, that can be used as well. Or else just knead the dough the old fashioned way i.e with hand.

Mix all the ingredients(Dry milk powder, Flour, butter, yogurt, baking soda) in the kneading machine. Knead till the butter comes out. It takes about 5-6 minutes. Let this mixture rest for 10 minutes.

Step 3: Fry the dough. Make small (Maltesers sized) balls of the dough with partially wet fingers. Make sure the dough balls have no cracks on the surface. This dough is enough to make 15 balls.

Step 4 : Frying. Deep fry the dough balls on medium to high heat. They should fry gently and become golden brown. Too hot oil will turn them brown from outside but will leave them uncooked from inside. Be careful with the heat.

Phase 5 : Add Rose water to the warm sugar syrup. Now add the fried dough balls to the warm sugar syrup. Mix and cover. I usually make the gulab jamans overnight and let them soak up sugar syrup through the night. They taste heavenly in the morning.  I decided to roll them in dried coconut, but they can be served with or without dried coconut.