Carrot Halwa (without khoya)

Carrot Halwa is one of my favourite Indian sweet and so is my Dad's. In fact, he loves it so much that he wouldn't mind taking on the laborious task of grating all the carrots required to make this yummy delight. Ah, if the fruits of hard work was this sweet... who wouldn't mind? :) And whenever my mum or I make this while he is around, we would gladly load him with the carrots promising to give him extra serving for the effort :P Well, the process of making this sweet is simple but slow and moreover it requires constant attention. So since a lot of time and effort is required to be spent at the stove making this, the primarily task is gleefully delegated, after all its team work! :D

This sweet can be made with regular carrots the ones that are small and light orange. The ones that are most commonly available in the Indian market. However, there is this longer and darker version of carrots that we call Delhi Carrots which are much sweeter and make yummilicous carrot halwa! So come winter season, the markets are flooded with Delhi Carrots and this much loved dessert is prepared at least once in that season.

Ingredients:Carrots - 1 cup (peeled and grated)
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom - 2-3 (finely pounded)
Almonds - 5-6 (finely sliced lenght-wise)
Ghee

Method:

• Heat ghee in a pan and add in the grated carrots. 
• Fry for a minute to remove the raw flavor of the carrots. 
• Now add the milk. Mix well and bring to a boil while stirring at short intervals. Keep the flame on medium. 
• As the milk boils, reduce the flame to minimum and in the sugar. 
• Continue stirring at frequent intervals until the milk evaporates and becomes half its original quantity. 

• Once the mixture thickens, and turns into a soft ball, transfer the contents into a bowl. 
• Garnish with finely pounded cardamom powder and sliced almonds. Serve hot!