Mumbai is hardly known for its winters but on the few days that it is cold, there is nothing like a warm Gajjar Halwa to round off a perfect meal
This morning I found a kilo of juicy red carrots in my refrigerator so I decided to make them into a sweet halwa. These carrots are commonly called Delhi carrots simply because they are grown in North India and at this time of year our markets are flooded with this variety. Sweet to taste, crunchy and juicy they make the best halwa.
So what you need is
3/4 cup or 100 g of pure desi ghee.
3-4 green cardamoms peeled and the seeds coarsely pounded
8 heaped or 1000 g of grated carrot
3/4 cup or 250 g grain sugar
1 cup water
3-4 green cardamoms peeled and the seeds coarsely pounded
4 strands of saffron
2 tbspn almond slivers
All you have to do is heat the ghee in a heavy bottomed pan
Add the coarsely pounded cardamom and fry for a bit
Then put in the grated carrot and stir. Lower the heat , cover the pan and allow the carrot to cook till semi done.
In the meanwhile make a thin one thread consistency syrup of the sugar, water, cardamom and saffron.
When the carrots are semi cooked, add the syrup and continue cooking till the carrots have a nice shiny glaze and most of the water is cooked down.
Take off heat and sprinkle the almond slivers.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and just wait for the compliments to flow!
My parents are currently touring Gujarat, a state where my father did his medical education. Always a foodie, Gujarat fine tuned his taste buds which were nourished on a good, simple, staple Brahmin diet which considered food to be essential for life and not the essential of life. In fact, having been exposed to the restrained and puritanical ethos of Brahmin Pune in the late 40s, he was gobsmacked by the gregariousness of the Gujarati, the riot of colour that assails you and the variety and ingenuity of Gujarati cuisine. From time to time he has visited this state particularly Ahmedabad which holds fond memories for him.
Last week, he took my mother along with him for a trip down memory lane with various side trips on un-trodden paths. So far they seem ecstatic. My mother can’t get enough of the good governance she has come across so far and my father cannot get enough of the good “undhya” he has sampled so far.
Both of them are convinced that Visiting Gujarat should be made compulsory for every Indian to realise what can be achieved here and now.
So was it coincidence or design that had this email message pop into my mail box this morning?
CHARACTERISTICS OF GUJARATI :
1. Every autowala, taxiwala, grocerywala is their kaka.
2. They never go to office, they go to HOFFIS!
3. The first rule of money – never use your own!
4. They can do Garba on any song in the world.
5. If u do not go for Navratri, u didnt exist.
6. 15 or 50, your parents will always refer to u as their baby or baabo.
34. After having chaat, bhelpuri, sevpuri, they make sure they ask for extra puri, and then a discount.
35. All their conversations begin with kem 6, maja ma ne, and end with, koi saaru investment batavo ne…
36. If it is beeg (big), edible and free, go on dude, eat it…
37. Bombay+Gujarat+London+ America = whole world. Nothing else exists for them
38. Everyone is invited to a Gujju home for lunch, and fed like u have come from the groom’s side.
39. If all of a sudden u hear a dhoom machale ringtone or a loud scream or a loud chit chat amongst a group, immediately assume that you are amidst Gujjus.
40. Hindi humko jara bi nahi faata hai.
41. They keep an “ELARAM” to wake up in the morning.
42. Jai Shri Krishan = Hello and Good bye
43. They take the constitution very seriously, everybody is called bhai and ben.
44. Be it seven in the morning or 1am, gaathiyas are always welcome.
45. They all own Reliance collectively …
46. Dandiya is our Prom.
47. You pack according to a 5 night 6 day holiday when going for a one day picnic.
48. Time spent at a party – Dancing (10 minutes), Chitchat (10 minutes), Dinner (100 minutes
A train of diamond kites up in the air (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
On Sunday evening Hubby dear and I were walking down Marine Drive and I was amazed to see a sky almost bereft of kites. At this time of year, the sky is normally full of kites that ride high on thermals, going higher and higher till they become microscopic blobs.
An enthusiastic father trying to get his
reluctant kid to fly a kite
Kite flying during Sankranti has been a traditional Indian festival enjoyed by all – women and children included but for the past several years, the only kites I seem to find are those for sale in shops. I remember looking out of my window and finding little boys on open terraces, sometimes even atop a water tank, coaxing their kite to fly up high and bring down another rival kite.
There were a few kite flyers on Marine Drive this Sunday and even less on Makar Sankrant the following. With no children at home to eat the sweets and the adults unable or disallowed from eating sweets, I didn’t bother with making the traditional sweets so Sankrant has become one more festival relegated to the past, another tradition that is dying out in urban India where children would rather kill happy pigs with angry birds rather than let that kite soar high in the sky.
Twenty- five Seven 