Gazar Halwa

Ingredients:

Carrots - 2 kg, cleaned, scrubbed, and grated to shreds(red carrots)

Sugar - 1 medium bowl(4 cups)

Milk- 3-4 kg(thickened)

Almonds - 15, blanched and cut

Cashew nuts - 15

Elaichi seeds (from 3-4) - roast on tawa and then grind it.

Ghee or butter - 2 tablespoons (preferably Indian ghee)

Method:

1. Grate the carrots and then put it in a kadai to cook. It will leave lot of water and get cooked in it. Don't add milk in the starting or gajar will become black. Later Add 1/2 cup milk if you want.

2. Take milk in a heavy-bottomed vessel and let it thicken. Let it be thickened to be turned into khoya. Or else one can use khoya made earlier/ from outside, just fry it in ghee to soften and crumble it nicely.

3. Once the water from carrots have dried up, add sugar to it and add 1 spoon ghee to it and let it cook nicely till they thicken nicely.

4. Add khoya when there is no trace of water and Keep stirring and then add nuts.

5. When done add elaichi powder and kevda and close the kadai with a plate .

6.Serve hot

Alternative method.

One can cook this halwa in milk too. Put milk in kadai and cook till it thickens and condenses into half. Then add the carrots. and keep stirring and removing milk from sides till water dries up. Then use the same process as above. Add 100 -250 grams of khoya in the end.

Suji Halwa!

Ingredients

Suji(semolina)-2 cups

Besan( Chickpea)- 1 cup

Sugar- 3 cups

Ghee- 2-3 cups

Water- 6 cups

Milk- 1 cup

Malai- 2 tsp

Grated dry cocunut-1

Raisins(kishmish)-10-15

Small cardomon - 6-8 (use seeds)

Chirongi(melon seeds)- handful

Cinnaomon(darchini)-1

Zarda colour-1/4 tsp mixed with milk

Saffron-3-4 strands mixed with milk

Kevda-1 tsp

Recipe

1. Saute suji in a kadai till golden brown and take it out.

2. Add 2 cup ghee in a kadai and add sauted suji and besan to it and do it till its sauted nicely( golden brown in colour) and leaves a smell. Make sure besan does has knots and if it does remove it.

3. Take 1 cup ghee in a pan and add raisin and small cardomon. Once raisins swell immediately add 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to it so raisins dont burn. Then add rest of the sugar and water to it.

4. Cook till sugar gets dissolved and the mixture gets sticky. Add zarda colour, saffron mixed in milk in it.Keep stirring while cooking and check mixture by touching the mixture and see if its sticky.

5. Add sauted suji to it and then add milk, malai to it. Add chirongi, coconut to it. Stir it nicely till its too heavy to stir. It takes 1-2 minutes. Add kevda to it and close lid so that smell remains.

6. Decorate with grated cocunut and serve.

Variation

1 One can also add graded badam(Almond), grated akrot(walnut) and grated kaju(cashew) to it.

Mong Dal Halwa/Katli!

Ingredients

Mong Dal (Green gram)- 3 cups

Suji(Semolina)- 1 cup(optional)

Sugar-4-5 cups

Kishmish(Raisans)-10-15

Small Cardomom seeds-4-5

Cocunut (Dry )-1

Almonds, Cashew, etc (optional)

Chironji(melon seeds)-10-15

Khoya/Malai (optional)

Milk-2-3 cups

Water-1 cup for syrup and 4-5 cups for soaking dal

Kevda- few drops

Ghee

Recipe

1. Soak mong dal in water overnight in a bowl ( or 2-3 hours atleast).

2. Strain water from the dal.

3. Put it in a cooker with milk enough to cover the dal and then cover the lid to let it give out 2-3 whistles(about 5-10 minutes).

4. Take it out and if u want u can remove the crumbles and soften it.

5. Take about 2-3 cooking spoon of ghee in a kadai and let it heat.

6. Saute some suji in a kadai till it turns golden brown and let out a distinct smell and then mix dal in it and saute it nicely till it turns golden brown and leaves out a distinct smell. If u want to make with ghee once can again saute with about 2 katori ghee. You can also add grated cocunut, chironji, malai and other nuts in it at this time.

7. In another utensil, heat 1 cooking spoon of ghee and put raisins in it so that they swell. Also add elaichi seeds at this time and immediately add sugar and 1 cup water so that raisins don't get burned. Let the syrup cook till sugar get mixed with water. Cook it for 5-7 minutes.

8. Switch on the flame of the kadai and pour this hot syrup in it and saute it at fast speed. Make sure no lumps are formed and remove them if they do. Keep doing it till the mixture becomes too heavy to be mixed. Pour few drops of kevda at this time.

9. If you want to have halwa , its ready to be eaten hot.

10. Chances are there that this halwa would not freeze into katli as mong dal doesn't soak water. So one can mix it with chana dal(bengal gram) or suji in equal quantities or more than half chana dal to make it into a katli.

11. Take a dry flat platter(Thali) and moisten it with little ghee. To make the katli pour the whole kadai on a flat plate where to freeze it. Flatten the surface with hands and let it cool for some hours.

12. Once the katli becomes cold , cut it into squares and then let it harden for some hours . The katli should be cut before it hardens as it would not be able to be cut after that.

Mong dal halwa tastes awesome when eaten mixed with vanilla ice cream!

Variations

1. Suji and besan katli can be made in similar way. The process is same since step 5. Take equal amounts of suji and half of besan and take sugar as much as both. Eg. Suji-2 cups,Besan-1 cups and Sugar-3 cups. Suji katli doesn't requires khoya but requires 1 cup of milk to be poured once the syrup is poured in suji as it soakes easily. There is no need to add extra nuts in it like almond and cashew. Suji katli hardens immediately so cut it immediately and then remove from platter after few minutes and store in a box.

2. Suji and besan halwa is made in same way. Just add 4 cups of water for every cup of suji. and saute with 2 cups of ghee

3. If u want you can make plain suji katli and suji halwa leaving out besan.

4. Chana dal Katli are made in the same way and usage of suji is optional in it due to water soaking qualities of chana. But I mostly use suji for better taste

4. Suji katli are harder than mong dal katli.

Mong Dal Halwa