First time I ate this when I was in Sydney. We were invited to Ganesh Chaturthi by one of our friend. All of us took some or the other dish. One lady, I forgot her name, had brought this. I asked her the recipe, as I always do. But had forgotten the masala she had put. So I used to make it with any masala I had at home. Recently I saw this recipe again on TV. Now I know about the masala also!!!.
Ingredients: Rice 1 cup Methi leaves 1 cup Potato 1 Lemon juice 1 tbl spn Ghee 1 tea spn Cumin seeds ½ tea spn Coriander seeds 1 tea spn Toor daal 1 tea spn Cloves (Lavang) 4-5 Red chillies 2-3 Salt
Method: Cook rice such that grainis should be separate. Dry roast coriander seeds, Toor daal, cloves and red chillies. Make powder. Heat ghee and add cumin seeds. When they start spluttering, add methi leaves and salt. Fry for 2-3 minutes. Add boiled potatoes(roughly mash potatoes with hand while adding). Add ground masala, rice, lemon juice and salt. Mix well and serve hot.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 15min
There is a big story of my experience with preparing this dish first time.
We were in Sydney and invited by one of our friends for Ganesh Chathurthi. We thought of taking some sweet with us. But I did not know how to cook any sweet (because I don’t like any sweets). Then I found “Gajar ka halwa” recipe somewhere. But I did not know how much carrot should be used for that.
We asked one of our friends, and he gave us an idea that 2 kgs of gajar(carrot) will be sufficient, because after cooking, the quantity of halwa will reduce (how convincing). So we bought 2 kgs of carrot & started grating with a tiny cheese grater borrowed from another friend. Believe it or not, I took almost 4-5 hrs to grate the carrot. By the time I finished with it, my hands were paining like anything. We had to reach their house for pooja at 11. It was around 9.30 and I realized the grated carrot was too much. But still I thought I will use all of them. At that time, I realized we were not having such a big vessel. One big vessel was there and that was used by my other friend who had prepared some pongal in that. I told her to remove the pongal from vessel, after that it took me around half an hour to clean the vessel!!!. Then I started cooking halwa. I absolutely had no idea how much time it will take. By some guesswork, I started adding all the ingredients. I did not know whether carrot was cooked or not(because at that time I did not know much of a cooking).
So finally by the time I finished my halwa, it was 12. When we reached their house it was 12.30 and the pooja was already finished. They had a nice laugh when I told my adventure. But the halwa turned out to be superb. It took 10 days for us to finish the remaining halwa, which we kept in refrigerator.
So now whenever I cook this I remember that incident and have a whole hearted laugh.
Without further boring you with my stories, now goes the recipe,
Ingredients: Grated carrot 2 cups Milk 3 cups Sugar 2 tbl spns Cardamom powder 1/4 tea spn Saffron 4-5 strands Ghee 1 tbl spn Cashew nuts 1 tbl spn
Method: Heat milk. When it is boiling, add grated carrot. Cook till carrot is 3/4th done. Add Sugar and ghee. Stir continuously at this stage. Cook till carrot is completely done and halwa becomes thick. Add saffron and cardamom powder. Garnish with cashew nuts fried in ghee. Serve hot or cold.
Serves : 3 Preparation time : 30 min
