- a popular dessert in India - will delight lovers of natural sweets home cooking. Cardamom gives the dessert an original flavor and aroma.
Of course, carrot halva is not at all like the usual halva for us, neither in taste, nor in appearance, nor in texture, they are related only by the fact that both are sweet, and even the presence of nuts. But an Indian delicacy may well appeal to both adults and children or surprise your guests.
Need to:
- Fresh carrots - 900 grams (in other words, 1 kilogram minus cleaning!)
- Butter - 150 grams
- Milk - 0.5 liters (preferably boiled)
- Sugar - 150-180 grams (approximately 0.75 cups), if you like it to be VERY sweet, you can put a whole glass
- Raisins - about 2/3 cup, up to a whole glass
- Cashew nuts (peeled and lightly roasted, but by no means salted) - 70-80 grams (this is the most expensive ingredient). You can replace with lightly roasted almond slices (about 3 tablespoons), you can also try with peanuts (unsalted !!!)
- Ground cardamom - from 0.5 to 1 teaspoon, depending on your love of spices (you can try to replace ground cinnamon and add ground cloves on the tip of the spoon - but it will be a completely different taste)
Cooking:
Wash the carrots, peel and grate on a fine grater.
Pour raisins with boiling water, let stand for 8-10 minutes, then drain the water and cool the raisins.
Fry the nuts (if you bought unroasted ones) lightly (3-4 minutes) in a frying pan without oil. Chop the nuts with a knife into pieces, but not very finely. Some of the nuts can be left whole and set aside for decoration.
Next, melt the butter in a deep frying pan.
We spread the carrots in a pan with oil, mix and fry on a high heat level for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Then add milk and sugar, mix everything, bring to a boil, reduce the heat under the pan to medium and cook and simmer for another 30 minutes. During this time, the liquid in the pan will evaporate by more than half.
Add nuts, mix.
Add raisins, mix.
Add cardamom, mix everything again.
We continue to fry, periodically (quite often) stirring until the liquid has completely evaporated from the pan. It takes us 15-20 minutes, but the time may vary depending on the diameter of the pan and the features of your stove. When all the liquid has evaporated and the color of the carrots has darkened, turn off the stove and let the carrot mass cool.
In principle, it is already ready and you can eat it, but simply spreading the mass with a spoon on plates is not so interesting, and it looks like porridge, and not a tasty dessert. Therefore, we spread the cooled carrot mass on a tray or flat dish and form a layer with a thickness of 2-2.5 centimeters with a spatula. This layer is slightly compressed with the same spatula.
While only a couple of types of halva are known in Russia, in India halva is prepared from almost everything that can be found in the house. Even from potatoes.
Indian carrot halva is different from our idea of it. But still, it's sweet vegetarian and healthy dessert. I think it's worth trying Indian halva at least once.
Ingredients:
- 2 small carrots
- a glass of milk,
- a quarter cup of sugar
- 4-5 tablespoons coconut flakes,
- 3 pieces of cloves,
- cinnamon,
- raisin,
- almonds.
Recipe with photo step by step:
The indicated amount of ingredients is enough for 5 small servings of halva. 
We put a saucepan with milk and sugar on the fire. Add cloves and cinnamon to it.
Three carrots on the smallest grater and add it when the milk boils and begins to rise. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes. 
Then we take out the cloves, add the washed raisins and crushed almonds. We pour coconut flakes. The mass will become thick. Continue stirring for about 5 more minutes. 
When almost all the milk has evaporated, remove from heat and add a little more coconut to make the halva thicker. 
We spread the warm halva into molds, press down to fill them well. 
Serve warm or cold. You can decorate with whole almonds and serve for a festive
Indian halva more like crumbly sweet pudding. It is best eaten hot. It is sold in shops with sweets, it costs from 10-20 rupees (about 6-12 rubles) per 100 grams. The Indians pronounce its name as "halava".
Halva is loved both in the north and in the south. In the north, vegetable halva is often offered for dessert or even as a snack - it is made from carrots, pumpkins or sweet potatoes. Grated vegetables are boiled in cream or milk until thickened. And fruit halva is very sweet, it is eaten with pastries. And in Kozhikode in Kerala in southern India they make halva according to a special recipe, it is called Kozhikkodan Halwa. It is made from maida (a variety wheat flour), ghee, coconut, cashew, add pineapple, etc. Karutha aluva, made from rice, is also popular in the south. This halva is almost black.
Sooji Halwa- halva from semolina,
Sooji gajar Halwa- from semolina with carrots,
Sooji besan Halwa- from semolina and chickpea flour,
Gajar Halwa- carrot,
Aate ka Halwa- wheat halva,
Kaju Halwa- from cashew nuts
Badam ka Halwa- almond.
Easy to make halva, all the ingredients for many types of halva are familiar to us. You need to choose good quality butter. It is better to use light brown unrefined sugar, which is available in many supermarkets, both in Russian packaging and imported (Denmark, Great Britain). In India, they put more sugar than in the above recipe. It takes about half an hour to prepare.
Halva from semolina with raisins
2 3/4 cups (650 ml) milk
1 1/2 cups (300 g) sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg,
1/4 cup (35 g) raisins
1 cup (200g) butter (preferably melted ghee)
1 1/2 cups (225 g) semolina
2 teaspoons orange peel or
1/4 cup hazelnuts or walnuts, or other toppings (see below)
juice of one lemon
1) Slowly melt the sugar in a cast-iron, cauldron or thick-walled saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly so as not to burn. If there is no cast iron, see another option below.
2) It will turn light brown - reduce the heat and slowly pour in hot (!) Milk. The sugar will crystallize.
3) Leave to dissolve over low heat.
4) Melt the butter in a frying pan (pot), fry in it semolina for 15 minutes, stirring regularly, until slightly brown.
5) Add raisins, zest and juice (or nuts) to caramelized milk.
6) Pour this mixture into semolina.
7) Stir once or twice: break up the lumps, then cook for a few minutes on low heat under the lid to absorb the liquid.
8) Stir several times for looseness.
9) It is best to eat halva hot. It can be warmed up by holding the pan in a large bowl of hot water. At the same time, it must be kneaded, it will become more airy.
Another variant- if there is no cast iron or thick-walled pan. Immediately pour hot milk with sugar or water with sugar and spices into semolina.
Tried Supplements: vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, nutmeg, various toasted nuts, fresh fruits, especially plums, apricots and peaches. All this should be added not at the last moment, but to cook a little together.
Carrot halva
900 g fresh carrots
3/4 cup (150g) butter
2 cups (500 ml) milk
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
3 art. raisin spoons,
3 art. tablespoons almonds (or cashews), sliced and lightly toasted
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom.
1) Grate carrots on a fine grater and fry for 10 minutes in melted butter over medium heat, stirring frequently.
2) Add milk, sugar, raisins, almonds. Cook for another 20-30 minutes, until it turns into a homogeneous mass.
3) Cool, make a layer 2.5 cm thick, sprinkle with cardamom. Cut into pieces and serve as a dessert.
Elena Kogutovskaya, Elvi Usmanova
