Gajar Halwa (Carrot Halwa - An Indian Sweet)

Gajar Halwa (Carrot Halwa - An Indian Sweet)

During school days, in Mumbai, I would wait for winter season to begin (not that Mumbai ever really experiences winter), reason being, a small hotel, Gita Bhavan, used to make Gajar Halwa in the winter months. Every Sunday evening mum would take me to Gita Bhavan for my weekly quota of goodies. It’s strange how some memories always stay with us. Gita Bhavan closed down years ago but the memories, the fun moments spent with my crazy mum, live on in her heart and mine. Yes, you read right. I did say ‘crazy’ mum. Where else would I get my wackiness from? ;-)

When I moved to Pune to serve a life sentence, without parole (read: marriage), I had no clue where I would find Gajar Halwa as delicious as the one I used to eat at Gita Bhavan. Grumpy (read: husband), as usual, was no help at all. Sigh! In the early 90’s an aunt, knowing my love for Gajar Halwa, shared her recipe. When I used her recipe for the first time, I knew I had finally brought home that familiar taste of Gita Bhavan’s Gajar Halwa. Ever since, it’s been a sweet treat for the family during the winter months. As soon as carrots flood the market, the first thing Grumpy looks forward to is Gajar Halwa. In all honesty, I do too. Soft, rich, perfectly sweetened with crunchy dry fruits, it’s one of my favorite Indian sweets. Give this a try at home and rest assured you will never want to buy Gajar Halwa from a sweet/mithai shop ever again!

Ingredients:

1¾ kilo carrots, peeled and grated

60 mils milk

1½ cups sugar

400 grams mava / khoya / milk solids, crumbled

21 tablespoons clarified butter / ghee

50 grams almonds, halved

50 grams pistachios, halved

50 grams cashew nuts, halved

1½ tablespoon clarified butter

2 sheets silver varq / edible sheets of silver

Method:

1. Heat 1½ tablespoon clarified butter in a small wok or frying pan. Fry the almonds, cashews and pistachios, separately, till light brown. Remove the fried nuts on a plate.
   
   
   
   
2. Add the grated carrots and milk into a pressure cooker.
3. Close the cooker and bring it to full pressure, for one whistle, on high heat.
4. Shut off the stove as soon as the whistle goes off and take the cooker off the hob.
5. Lift the whistle lightly from the vent to release all the built up pressure.
6. When all the pressure is released, open the cooker and empty the contents of the cooker into a thick bottomed vessel.
   
   
   
   
7. Put the vessel on high heat, add sugar.
   
   
   
   
8. Cook till the liquid dries up. Stir occasionally.
   
   
   
   
9. Grate the mawa or mash it finely with a fork and add it to the carrot mixture.
   
   
10. Stir the carrots and mawa well to ensure that the mawa blends into the carrot mixture.
    
    
    
    
11. Add clarified butter and cook, stirring constantly, until clarified butter separates.
12. Add half the quantity of nuts to the carrot halwa.
    
    
13. Remove the halwa in a serving dish, cover with silver varq and garnished with remaining dry fruits. Serve!
    
    

Chef Notes:

1. This can be directly cooked in a thick bottomed vessel instead of using the pressure cooker but when you can save on precious fuel/gas and reduce the cooking time without any compromise on taste, texture and flavor, I think it's the best way to go. If you do cook this directly in a vessel, you may need approximately 250 mils (or a wee bit more) of milk, instead of 60 mils to soften the carrots.
2. The quantity of sugar can be adjusted to your liking. I used 1½ cups which I felt was perfect. It wasn’t bland and nor was it overly sweet.
3. I love dry fruits in Mithai, actually I like dry fruits in just about anything, hence I went all out and used the quantity mentioned in the recipe. After all, if I'm making Mithai, I definitely don’t have low-calorie food as my agenda. ;-) The same goes for clarified butter. You can use as little as 7 tablespoons or go all the way up to 21 tablespoons. Go with what works best for you. Go in accordance to your dietary needs and dietary restrictions in regard to the dry fruits and the clarified butter.
4. The halwa/mithai can be served at room temperature but it tastes best when served hot.
5. If you don't have silver varg for garnish / decoration, feel free to do without it as it does not in any way alter the taste or texture of the halwa.
6. For those of you who don't understand the word ‘halwa’ or ‘mithai’, it means sweet / sweetmeat. It’s quite similar to what is known in western countries as ‘fudge’.
7. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.
   
   

Murgh Dum Biryani - Chicken Biryani

Murgh Dum Biryani - Chicken Biryani

There is nothing quite like the aroma that wafts through the house when one opens a sealed vessel of Dum Biryani. Sigh! After having posted the Beef-Mutton Biryani recipe a few months back, I have received numerous requests for Chicken Biryani. I have been promising friends to put up this recipe for ever so long. I love Mutton Biryani! The only Chicken Biryani I will happily tuck into is the one made by Anu, that is why when Grumpy (read: husband) requested for Chicken Biryani, this November, for his Parsee-Calendar birthday, I was one happy puppy! I immediately decided I would keep my promise to my friends, take pictures of the process and share the recipe. After all, it was long overdue.  I have to admit, cooking this dish is not my cuppa tea. Biryani is Anu’s forte, hence, like the Beef-Mutton Biryani, this Chicken Biryani comes to you, courtesy Anu (my daughter from another mother). Enjoy!

Ingredients for Marination:

1½ kilo chicken, cut into pieces

3 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste

5 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon coriander powder

Salt to taste

5 black peppercorns

4 cardamoms

1 inch piece cinnamon

½ kilo yogurt /dahi /curd

Method:

1. Marinate chicken in ginger-garlic paste, chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt, black peppercorns, cardamoms and cinnamon for 3 hours, or overnight, in the fridge.
2. After completion of marinating time, add yogurt to the chicken and marinate for 30 more minutes, at room temperature. 

Ingredients for Rice:

1 kilo rice (I used Daawat Basmati – blue colored packet)

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoon caraway seeds /shahjeera

1½ inch piece cinnamon

12 black peppercorns

5 cloves

4 cardamoms

4 tablespoons oil

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash the rice and soak in clean water for ten minutes. Drain.
2. Boil a large quantity of water in a large vessel.
   
   
   
   
3. Add bay leaves, caraway seeds, cinnamon, black peppercorns, cloves, cardamoms, salt and oil.
4. When the water comes to a boil, add the drained rice.
   
   
   
   
5. Parboil the rice till it is 50% cooked and immediately drain the water from the rice in a colander.
   
   

Extra Ingredients:

7 large potatoes, parboil to 70%, peel and each potato cut into 2

½ bunch coriander leaves, roughly chopped

½ small bunch mint leaves, roughly chopped

3 tomatoes, sliced into rounds

6 green chilies, slit

7 onions, sliced, fried to crisp golden brown

3 large pinches saffron

6 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons oil

8 tablespoons clarified butter

Ingredients to seal the vessel:

2 cups wheat flour

Water to bind the dough

Method:

1. Knead the dough with the water to make semi-stiff dough.
2. Cover and leave aside. 

Layering the Biryani:

1. Soak saffron threads in 125 mils hot water. Cover and allow to steep for 30 minutes.
   
   
   
   
2. In a large thick bottomed vessel, add the marinated chicken.
   
3. Over the chicken add roundels of tomatoes, coriander leaves, mint leaves, slit chilies and ¾ quantities of the crisp, fried onions.
   
   
   
   
4. Carefully, but quickly, layer the hot parboiled rice over the layered greens. (IMPORTANT: Please layer the chicken, tomatoes and greens, in advance, while the rice is boiling as you need to layer the drained parboiled rice quickly, while it is hot).
   
   
   
   
5. Quickly spoon the saffron and the saffron water over the rice.
   
   
   
   
6. Spoon the oil over the rice.
7. Add blobs of butter and clarified butter all over the layer of rice.
   
   
   
   
8. Sprinkle the remaining crisp, fried onions.
   
   
   
   
9. Cover the vessel with a lid and seal the edges of the vessel and lid with the kneaded dough.
10. Put a griddle on the stove and heat the griddle.
11. Once the griddle is hot, put the sealed vessel on the griddle.
12. Keep on medium-high flame for 15-20 minutes, then lower heat to minimum flame. Allow it to cook on low heat till the chicken and rice are cooked through. This should take approximately an hour.
13. Turn off the stove. Once you turn off the stove, leave the Biryani to rest on the stove for ten minutes.
14. Carefully break open the sealed dough and serve with onion rings or Dahi Kachumber and lemon wedges.
    
    

Dahi Kachumber: An Indian Salad…

A salad comprising of chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped green chilies, chopped coriander leaves, mixed with smoothened yogurt, seasoned with salt and black pepper powder.

Chef Notes: 

1. The first most IMPORTANT point I’d like to make is… When I mentioned 1½ kilo chicken, please note I do NOT use a big bird. I ALWAYS use a 1 kilo bird and then use half of another bird weighing 1 kilo thus totaling the weight of the bird used to 1½ kilo.
2. A big bird is sometimes tough to cook plus I believe, from experience, that a 1 kilo bird is ideal for tender chicken meat Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for large sized birds, hence always opt for 1 kilo birds..
3. Only the photos and photo set-up for this recipe is done by me. This recipe is courtesy, Anita (Anu). My daughter, for the last 23 years, from another mother. <3
4. Depending on the chicken you use the time taken to cook the chicken may vary by 5-10 minutes. A fresh-cut bird will cook faster, while a frozen broiler may take a bit longer to cook.
5. You may steep the saffron in hot milk instead of water; Anu usually does that but this chose to use water.
6. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.