Gajar Ka Halwa /Carrot Pudding

A popular and traditional Indian dessert made with carrot and milk.

Gajar halwa/Gajrela is a very delicious dessert /sweeet of North India especially popular in Punjab.Grated carrots are cooked in milk and sugar and then pure ghee and nuts are added to give a nice taste and crunch,addition of khoya is optional as you can make this only with milk,or can add some condensed milk.

Prep time- 10 min
cooking time 20 min
Difficulty level-easy
Cuisine-Indian
Type-dessert

INGREDIENTS-

• Carrot-1 kg
• Full fat milk-1 liter
• Sugar-250 gms
• Khoya/solidified milk-1 cup*
• Cashew pieces /Kaju-1/2 cup
• Cardamom powder-1/2 tsp
• Ghee-5 tbsp
• Pistachio -to garnish

PROCEDURE-

1. Scrape the carrots and grate them .
2. Heat  2 tbsp ghee in a heavy bottom pan,add the grated carrots and saute for a minute on medium heat.
3. Now add milk and cook on medium heat till the moisture almost dries up .
4. Add sugar and cook till it thickens again.
5. Add grated mawa ,cashew pieces and cardamom powder.
6. Mix and add 2-3 tbsp of ghee and stir fry for few seconds.
7. Serve hot .

Instant khoya/Mawa Recipe:

Take 2 cups of full cream milk powder in a glass bowl, add 2 tbsp of ghee or butter in it and mix well. Add some water and make a soft dough. Cover and microwave for 1 minute or steam in a closed container for 3-4 minutes. You may now mash or grate it and use it as required.

Note-

1-Use red Indian carrots for a nice and bright red colour,I used the American orange carrots,hence it has a orange red colour..
2-In U.P we use a good amount of ghee to fry the carrots(approx. 1 cup) and that truly enhance the taste:)

Coconut Rose Modak

Coconut Rose ModakStuffed sweet Dumplings made with coconut and condensed milk

Ganesh Chaturthi/Vinayak Chaturthi is a very popular festival in India. Different varieties of sweets and Naivaidhyams are made during Ganapati Pooja. Sweet Modaks of different varieties are made and offered to Lord Ganesh. There are many versions, flavours and variety of making modaks - the one I am sharing today is an easy and quick method of making coconut modak. The dough is made of desiccated coconut and condensed milk and stuffed with Gulkand/rose petal preserve and nuts. I have used a modak mould, but you can shape them as a ball and make laddoo and roll them in some desiccated coconut.
I have also posted the recipe of- Paneer and Coconut ladoo , Besan ladoo ,Till ke ladoo and Pineapple sandesh , Kaju Gulkand Ladoo, which you can offer as Naivaidhya to Ganeshji

Prep time-20 min
Cuisine - Indian
Type - Dessert
Yield - 10 modaks

INGREDIENTS-

• Desiccated coconut/Nariyal ka boora or burada- 3 cup
• Condensed milk- 1 tin
• Milk powder- 2 tbsp
• Saffron- 1/3 tsp

Filling-

• Gulkand / rose petal preserve- 3.5 tbsp
• Desiccated coconut- 3 tbsp
• Almonds,chopped- 12
• Cardamom powder- 1/3 tsp

PROCEDURE-

1. In a big bowl add desiccated coconut, condensed milk, milk powder and mix and mash well.
2. In a separate bowl add all the ingredients of filling and mix and mash wall.
3. Mix saffron with little water and crush to make a paste.
4. Now grease a modak mould and stuff the mixture and press it on all the sides of the mould.
5. Make a small ball from the stuffing mixture and stuff it in the centre of the modak.
6. Apply some mixture from the condensed milk mixture at the bottom of the modak and press tightly.
7. Now carefully remove the modak from the mould.
8. Apply some saffron mixture on the top of modaks.
9. Now offer these easy and delicious modaks to lord Ganesha!

NOTE-
1-You may need around-3 to 3.5 cup of desiccated coconut,remember that the mixture should not be sticky, it should be like a dough.
2-Milk powder is added to give some body to the dough and reduce stickiness.
3-If want to avoid stuffing then you can add the gulkand to the dough itself and shape in modak or laddoo.