Microwave Cooking - Carrot Halwa

When growing up, whenever the vegetable market was flooded with carrots, my mom use to make carrot halwa. I remember it was a lengthy process; peeling the carrots, hand grating them, roasting the grated carrots in ghee (clarified butter) and then simmering it in milk until the milk is evaporated. The laborious process kept me away from this preparation until I came across this microwave version and Anu’s slow cooker preparation of the halwa.

I made the microwave version 3 times in the last 3 weeks. I was skeptical of both the versions as the recipe I knew calls for roasting the grated carrots in ghee before simmering it in milk. I made it 3 weeks ago and I liked the result. I made it again 4-5 days later for a potluck party. This time I made halwa with 3 lbs of carrots for a gathering of 15 people. Since I did not get to take pictures, I made it again couple days ago for the blog. If one was making it in large quantity, I would not recommend the microwave method as it took over an hour of microwave cooking to make halwa with 3 lbs. of carrot. Slow cooker method might be a good option.

Total Time: 37 – 40 minutes
Preparation: 15 minutes
Microwave Cooking: 22 - 25 minutes
Serves:3-4Ingredients:

1 lb. / 450 grams. Carrots or 2 cups firmly packed peeled & grated Carrots
1 can Evaporated Milk
⅔ cup Sugar (adjust to taste)
¼ Cardamom Seeds crushed
1 tbsp. Unsalted Butter
6-8 Whole Cashews broken into pieces

Preparation:

Peel the carrots and grate it. I hand grated it.
In a microwave safe bowl, take 1 tbsp. of butter and broken cashews and microwave it for 2 minutes or until the cashews are lightly roaster. First microwave it for 30 seconds, mix well so that the ghee coats the cashews and microwave it for another 1 ½ minutes. I did it for 2 minutes and my cashews turned brown.
In a big microwave safe bowl, take the carrots, add evaporated milk and microwave it for 10 minutes, mixing it in every 3-4 minutes.
Add sugar, cardamom powder, ghee and microwave it for another 20 – 25 minutes or until all the milk reduces. Mix it every 5 minutes to make sure the carrots are evenly cooked.
Garnish with cashews and serve it hot or chilled.

Note:
I used the following quantities and it tasted fine too.

3 lbs. carrots or 6 ¾ cups firmly packed grated carrots
3 cans evaporated milk (2 fat free and one regular)
1 tsp. cardamom seeds
1 ½ cups sugar
1 can fat free condensed milk
3 tbsp. butter

Microwave carrots and evaporated milk for 20 minutes stirring every 5 minutes.
Add sugar, cardamom and microwave for 5 minutes.
Add Condensed milk & butter and cook until it solidifies stirring every 5 minutes. It took almost 50-60 minutes.

This goes to Kalyani's My Mother's Kitchen: Indian Mithai Mela & Srivalli's MEC: Potluck Party.