Carrot Halva (Microwave)

Christmas is over :-( . Hope you all had a good time enjoying all the goodness this festival brings, not to mention good food, gifts, parties and so on. I had a good time too and am having a good time now as well, shopping around in the big sale season! I tell you I love shopping and I do not know many people who do not :-)!

The blogosphere is filled with recipes of Christmas goodies and it made things more festive. May be I will share them sometimes later. Today, I am sharing this Halva which is an all time favourite in my household especially during winters. This Carrot Halva is the microwave version. I had posted the conventional one long back. You can check the recipe here.

This is probably going to be my last post this year.. Lets end it with this sweet dish! Wishing you all the very best in the coming year!

Coming back to today's recipe:

Carrot Halva (Microwave):

Ingredients:

2 cups shredded carrots.
1 tbsp ghee
½ cup milk.
¼ cup sugar or less.
A few strands of saffron.
2 cardamom pods crushed.
Almond flakes and chopped pistachios to garnish.



Process:

1. Add the carrots to a safe microwave bowl and add ghee. Give a good stir so that the ghee is nicely coated on the shredded carrots.

2. Add milk, crushed cardamom, saffron and sugar and mix such that all the carrots is covered by it.

3.Microwave on a high for 3-5 minutes and stir and microwave again for 3-5 minutes.

4. Follow this cycle till done. Mine took 20 minutes. If you are making a lesser amount it will be done quicker and also time differs from microwave to microwave. So adjust accordingly.

5. Finally, garnish with almonds and pistachios. Serve warm or cold.

Sending this off to my event - Winter Warmers held here.

Enjoy!

An Event Announcement and C3 Soup

Winter is in full bloom here and with that there are a few dishes that are making way to our table more than at any other time of the year. 'Soups' for examples comes to my mind first. But there are lot many things that we cook mostly in winter that keeps us warm and going. So here I am with my first event here -'Winter Warmers', very apt for the season, I believe. I look forward to your contribution, be it a piping hot soup or a warm salad, a warm halva or a sizzling brownie. It can be even a hot cup of tea or coffee! The options are numerous and varied.. So, friends send in your delicious entries! Here are a few rules of the event, you would like to know:

1. Make something thats keeps you warms and going during cold wintery days.

2. It can be any course of the meal.

3. Recipe has to be strict vegetarian. No eggs allowed!

4. Multiple Entries are welcome. Old entries are allowed with new entries. That means if you are sending two new entries, you can send two of your old entries for the event.

5. Please send in your entries starting today, 15th Dec 2010 till on or before January 30th 2011. Roundup will be there by first week of February.

6. Bloggers can simply send your Name and URL of your recipe at theveggiehut@gmail.com (theveggiehut AT gmail DOT com) with the subject of "Winter Warmers" with the following details-

Name:
Recipe Name and Url:
Picture of the dish reduced to 300px:

Non bloggers can email me your name, recipe and picture at theveggiehut@gmail.com (theveggiehut AT gmail DOT com) with the subject of "Winter Warmers"

7. Link back to this announcement page is mandatory and I would really appreciate if you can include this logo in your posts.

Looking forward to your entries!

My very first entry to my very first event is this soup- C3 Soup. Well it is the actually, Carrot Coconut and Coriander Soup. It looks like a rather long name, so I call it C3 Soup. I had this soup here in a restraunt and needless to say I loved it. I am big on Tomato Soup but this one seemed to give a nice competition to my old all time favourite soup. I googled to find a suitable recipe and landed here. I have made some variation to it and here is my version.

Lets have alook at the ingredients:

4 large carrots.

1/4 cup chopped onions.

1/4 cup chopped coriander.

1/4 cup coconut milk( You may increase or decrease it by 2 tbsp)

2 cloves.

1 bay leaf.

Salt and pepper to taste.

2 tsp Sugar (Optional).

Process:

1. Wash and peel the carrots. Cut them into chunks. In a pressure cooker add the onions. cloves, bay   leaves and chopped carrots.

2. Add a cup of water. Pressure cook it on a medium till two whistles.

3. Let it cool down. Take out the cloves and bay leaf and discard. Churn it in a mixture till smooth and creamy with no lumps.

4. Heat a pan and add the mixture. Bring it to a boil and lower the gas.

5.  Add the chopped coriander leaves and coconut milk. Season with salt, pepper and sugar and stir. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot with your choice of bread.

I love this soup a bit sweet but my husband likes othewise so I donot add the sugar in his part. You can make your choice.

Send in your 'Winter Warmer' recipes for my event and enjoy your winter. Cheers!