Gajar halwa shots – carrot halwa – gajar ka halwa

Gajar halwa  –

Gajar halwa is a popular Indian sweet dish. Gajar halwa is a carrot based sweet pudding. Traditionally gajar halwa is prepared with carrots, ghee or clarified butter, milk and sugar, cardamom is added for flavouring and dry fruit or nuts to add richness.
It is believed that gajar halwa was introduced during mughal era. Halwa is an arabic word which means sweet and in english gajar is carrot, so its a sweet dish made with carrots.

In middle of this blog itself, I am becoming nostalgic. My mom, her kitchen and fragrance of that sweet halwa! tasty, juicy,creamy,rich,smooth,soft,sweet,deep orange coloured and simply delicious. I can sense flavours bursting inside mouth right now.

I remember those old winter days when we enjoy hot gajar halwa with cold vanilla ice cream, after dinner. Carrot is a winter vegetable. Now a days it is grown almost whole year but the carrots that grown during winter are tastier and extra juicy.

Winter is coming soon and I am so excited to have gajar ka halwa made by my mom. Gajar  halwa is regular cooking dish during winters, I personally not a big fan of carrot even it has huge health benefits, for me it’s a big no to gajar in salads, but when it comes to gajar halwa, nothing could be better.

Gajar halwa is light healthy sweet dish, made with carrot and have all benefits of carrot.

Nutrition value and benefits of carrot –

Carrots are high in vitamin and minerals it contain fiber and beta carotene, good source of sodium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, vitamin k and B6, also has fair amount of vitamin A, vitamin E, folate, zinc and iron. also high in antioxidant.

1. Daily glass of carrot juice is good for eye sight.
2. Aid in digestion and cure constipation.
3. Beta carotene compound that convert to vitamin A. So it is immunity booster.
4. Good for heart health.
5. Reduce bad cholesterol.
6. Good for skin.

Traditional method of preparing gajar halwa is time taking and you also need lots of muscle work, because it made by using milk and gajar. Carrot slowly cooked in milk and you have to continuously stir the mixture until milk will start to reduce and evaporate.

How to make gajar halwa

Today I am preparing gajar halwa using condense milk. Take big pan, cook gajar in ghee continuously stir until the moisture evaporates and gajar comes together , add condense milk cook for some more time, add cardamon and choice of your nuts and gajar halwa ready to taste.

Serving of gajar halwa

Now it’s presentation time. Have you ever imagined Gajar halwa in tequila shots glasses yes these beautiful shots in picture is actually gajar halwa topped with creamy rabri, already started drooling.

Presentation in food plays major role in morden cooking, it’s an art of modifying, processing, arranging and decorating to enhance its look. With presenting gajar halwa in shots you can give tempting look to this simple looking dish. In present time Plating and food presentation reached to the another level. There are very creative ways are emerging in decorating plates and it is not limited to restaurants any more. People are using it in their regular cooking. People scan the food with their eyes or people eat the food with their eyes first and if the food looks visually appealing, it automatically becomes tasty.

In modern cooking, art and science are also used in food plating or presentation. I have seen the use of liquid nitrogen to present food which creates lots of visual drama and looks very tempting.

Important notes –

1. This halwa taste best when prepared with red carrot, available only during winter.

2. You can use mawa instead of condensed milk and if you are health conscious add sugar free instead of sugar.

3. Cooking of gajar in slow heat and continuous stirring is important while preparing else mixture can burn.

4.Grate the carrots to medium thickness. If you grate them too thin, the halwa will become mashy.

5. You can add nuts of your choice.

6. instead of rabri you can serve it with vanilla ice-cream

I have made more dessert recipe gulab jamun, rasmalai, kajukatli, milky peda, khajur barfi, nariyal barfi please click on the name to check full recipe.

Watch video –

Printable recipe –

Full recipe with step by step photos –

1. Heat a pan and ad ghee to it.
   
2. Add grated carrots to it and mix. Cook on medium heat until its soft. Approx. 15 minutes.
   
   
3. Add condensed milk to it. Mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
   
   
4. Add cardamom powder, cashews, raisins and sugar to it. Mix well.
   
   
   
   
5. At last add ghee to it. It gives a really nice glaze to the halwa. Mix well. Turn off the heat.
   
   
6. Take a tall shot glass. Fill it half with halwa. Then add rabri to fill it full. Add a strand of saffron on the top for garnishing.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Serve chilled!
   if you like my recipe please comment below, give a try to this recipe and tell me how its come out.