Carrot Halwa

A very happy Diwali to all...
Thinking of a Diwali post I was really confused, there was a lot to choose from. Finally I decided on this one. Its a popular dessert throughout India and i think there isn't a food blog without this recipe. Its my favorite too.
Most of the blogs have something of their own to contribute to the original recipe. I have seen an interesting twist of adding orange to it in a few, think must give it a try sometime. Well let me join the group by sharing " my recipe" for carrot halwa.

Ingredients

• Carrot  -  300 gm
• Milk  -  500 ml
• Milk Powder  -  1 tbsp
• Ghee  -  1/4 cup
• Sugar  -  according to taste
• Cardamom  - 2 pods
• Nuts of your choice  -  to garnish

Method

• Grate the carrots. In a heavy bottom pan mix grated carrots and milk. Wash the cardamom pods  nicely and peel them, add the skin to the above mixture. Powder the seeds and keep aside.
• Dissolve milk powder in lukewarm water and add to the carrot milk mixture. Now keep this on medium flame and cook till carrots are done.
• Now start adding the ghee 1 tbsp at a time.
• When the milk has almost dried up (ie while string we can see a little milk at the bottom) add in the sugar. Cook till all the moisture dries up and ghee starts oozing out. Remove from flame, add cardamom powder and nuts.

Notes

• I usually take milk just enough to immerse the carrots. I  take 500 ml of milk and rest i adjust in the quantity of water used to dissolve milk powder. I usually prepare this in a wide mouthed vessel, it uses 1/2 cup water plus 1/2 L of milk. If milk alone is enough, dissolve milk powder in milk itself.
• Adding milk powder enhances the taste. Its purely optional.
• Adding cardamom skin while cooking gives a nice soothing flavor while the seeds give intense flavor, sometimes I add more cardamom skins and omit seeds.
• Adding condense milk at the final stage of cooking also improves the taste.