Recipe: Zelda's Black Carrot Halwa

All photographs: Zelda Pande for Rediff

Behind every recipe there is a usually a tale.

My colleague Mahipal, who -- like all folks at Rediff editorial, a team that has worked together for aeons -- is also a friend, well-wisher, desk buddy etc, was looking for Black Carrot Halwa.

I was going to Delhi, so he requested me to locate some.

Incidentally carrots come in several colours. The orange 'English' carrots. Our desi long lal gajjar. Exotic yellow and white versions. And very dark purple almost black carrots.

In fact, orange carrots were an aberration. The Dutch in the 18th century, the story goes, wanted to celebrate their monarch or ‘father of the fatherland’, William of Orange (Willem van Oranje) and did some horticulture experiments. Their cross-breeding efforts produced an easier-to-grow root vegetable. Till then, the purple-black carrots were much more common.

When I reached Delhi I did some research, but none of the sweetmakers famous for their Kala Gajjar Halwa had it in stock. As per Swiggy, the nearest location to order this halwa was Chappan Bhog, Lucknow. And I returned to Bombay empty handed, bringing instead some golf ball-size Mung Dal Laddus for Mahipal from Connaught Place’s Saravana Bhavan.

But a few weeks later, while ordering a few types of fresh vegetables online from Trikaya (incidentally, an excellent place to get exotic sabzi, be it Swiss chard which is not so different from our lal bhaji, to zucchini flowers, baby carrots), I noticed they were selling black carrots! Imagine my excitement and I quickly ordered 550 gm of it.

Black carrots

It arrived and was, I discovered, a kind of funny-looking vegetable, whose appearance was closer to purple kandh (yam) and when you grated it, it looked more like beets.

I used an adaptation of my mom's recipe to cook up gajjar halwa from it. This version doesn't have too much ghee or sugar. Instead, I added date palm jaggery, that I had located on Amazon and was shipped to me from Bengal. It's only lightly-flavoured with cardamom, because I like to keep that strong spice in check. Nuts are optional; some have nut allergies.

The black carrots lend a distinctly earthier taste. I sent some to Mahipal and I told him: Joh wada kiya woh nibhana padega. He had forgotten about his Black Gajjar Ka Halwa request and thought it was rose halwa. Next time we shall try Gulab Ka Halwa.

Black Gajjar Halwa

Serves: 4-5

550 gm black carrots, peeled, grated
½ litre milk, about 2 cups
60 gm khoya or mawa or milk solids
12 almonds, sliced into sticks, optional
12 raisins, cut in half
3 pieces green elaichi or cardamom, innards powdered
½ cup or less grated nolen gur or date palm jaggery
2 tbsp ghee + ½ tsp for frying the almonds

Method

Toast the almonds in ½ tsp of ghee, in a small frying pan, over low heat, till it pinks.
Take off heat and keep aside.
In a saucepan or a thick-bottomed kadhai, warm the ghee over medium heat and add in the grated carrot.
Fry the carrots, over low heat, for 15-20 minutes with the ghee, to get rid of its water and its mass shrinks.
Add in the milk and mix.
Continue cooking over low heat for 10 minutes or till the milk is absorbed.
Now add the nolen gur and the elaichi and mix.
Once that is absorbed, add the khoya, raisins and lightly mix.
Let the khoya get absorbed and the halwa will start leaving the sides of the kadhai.
Add in the fried almonds pieces and mix.
Take off heat and serve warm.