Carrot halwa/Gajar ka halwa and a reason to celebrate !

I have two reasons to celebrate today :-) This is my 150th post and I just noticed that I now have more than 100 friends following my little space. Thank you all, for inspiring and encouraging me to make this possible. Here's a sweet treat for you...

Wishing you all a Happy Pongal / Makara Sankranti.

Ingredients:

Carrots - 500 gms, peeled and grated(or shredded)

Hot Milk - 1.5 cups

Sugar - 1/2 cup + more if you like

Cardamoms -  5 (powdered or crushed)

Ghee - 2 tbsp or more

Cashewnuts and Raisins - as much as you like :-)

Preparation:

1. Heat ghee in a big pan and fry the cashewnuts and raisins till done. Drain to a small bowl. Keep aside.

2. In the same ghee, add the carrots and fry for sometime. When the colour of the carrots change, add the hot milk and stir well. After it boils, lower the flame and cook for few minutes. Add sugar and combine well. Cook till the carrot is done and the milk is almost absorbed.

3. Garnish with the fried cashewnuts and raisins.

Enjoy as it is or with Vanilla icecream...

Im linking it with ABC Series:DESSERTS happening at my blog this month.

Also to Yummy Dessert hosted by Pranati.

Also sending to Anyone can cook: Series 38

Double Ka Meetha

Another Blog Hop Wednesday is here and this time I have a sweet treat from Vaishali's blog  - Ribbons to Pastas. Apart from recipes, Vaishali's blog has a lot of crafts which shows how creative she is. Vaishali has a unique range of Sindhi recipes in her blog which are very new to me. I wanted to try a traditional dish, but unfortunately I couldn't spend much time in the kitchen. My daughter is down with viral fever for more than a week now and she clings to me all day and night. This leaves me with very little time to cook and do other household chores. Regular visitors of my blog would have noticed my absence for a week. So I looked for an easy recipe in her blog and finalized on Double Ka Meetha, a Nawabi dessert which is similar to a bread pudding. I am so very glad that I tried this, it was a sweet treat to the taste buds. It is a tasty and easy dessert option when you have guests and can be made the previous day and refrigerate if you would like to serve chilled. We had half of it while still warm and I refrigerated the other half portion and relished it the next day. I liked the cold one more :-)

I had to make a few changes to Vaishali's recipe due to the unavailability of ingredients mainly Khoya. I used Nestle Coronation Evaporated Milk instead of boiling and thickening milk, which made it much easier. View the original recipe here.

Ingredients:

Bread Slices - 5
Evaporated Milk - a 400 gm tin
Sugar - 1/4 cup or to taste
Cardamom powdered - a pinch or two
Saffron - a pinch
MTR Badam Feast powder - 2 tbsp (Optional. I just added it for the badam flavour)
Nuts and raisins roasted in ghee - to garnish
Ghee or Oil - to deep fry

Preparation:

1. Cut out the edges of the bread and then cut each slice to four. Deep fry the bread pieces and keep aside.
2. Heat the evaporated milk in a pan or in microwave. Add sugar, cardamom, saffron and the badam feast powder and stir well.
3. Arrange the bread slices in an oven safe dish. I used a glass roasting tray for this. Pour the prepared milk and top it with the nuts and raisins roasted in ghee.
4. In an oven pre-heated at 180 C, bake it for 5-7 mins.

Serve warm or refrigerate and serve chilled.

This pic goes to Black and White Wednesday

Off this goes to Blog Hop Wednesday - Week 5,  Diwali Special - Sweets& Savouries at Tickling Palates and Diwali - Festival of lights at Anu's healthy kitchen

Also goes to Khushi's My Diwali My Way