Blog Bites #1: Gajar Halwa in a Rice Cooker

Nupur at One Hot Stove is hosting an event, Blog Bites. The first part of the event is all about cookers – pressure cooker, slow cooker and rice cooker. This post is my entry to this event.

The rice cooker I have is a wedding gift from my colleagues at my previous company.   This is one of the best wedding gifts I have got. I use it all the time. It is easy to clean and maintain. When I have guests coming over, I make plain rice or any colored rice in this. I leave it alone in the rice cooker and get busy preparing other things. I don’t have to worry about checking on it and re-heating it at lunch time. The rice sits there innocently while the aroma spreads to the entire house and works on your appetite. The bottom line is: rice cookers are a must in every kitchen. Lakshmi and the rest of the gang, thanks for the gift! Hey Lakshmi, you cook some wonderful things with your rice cooker, why don’t you post some of your recipes for us? You can even post an entry for this event.

I am lucky to have been born in a family where there are great cooks and relish-ers in umpteen numbers. Recipes handed down from 3-4 generations which were previously made in kitchens with stone stoves are made even now in modern kitchens with chimneys. And these recipes remain a favorite with all of us even today. I always go back to these tried, tested and relished to the core recipes which give me a comfort zone and confidence that I can get this right.

The ubiquitous gajar halwa is one such dessert which I go back to, no matter what the occasion. If someone is coming over for lunch at a short notice, then I put together the ingredients and get the dessert ready in minutes. Not much preparation needed (apart from grating the carrots and that too is easy if you have a food processor) and a few ingredients which are available in the kitchen all the time. If gajar halwa sounds too plain and boring, then top it up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and it becomes more interesting. I have always made this in a pressure cooker or in a microwave, but when my cousin said she tried making doodhi halwa in a rice cooker, I got curious. So, I got this recipe from her and tried it myself but replaced doodhi with gajar and it came out exceedingly well. The best part about this recipe is you can reduce its calorie content by not using ghee. Yes, it is possible. You can make gajar halwa without ghee and it tastes great. My cousin doesn’t have a blog, so I can’t post a link to it.

Recipe: Serves 2

1. Carrots – 3-4 or about a quarter kg. Grate all the carrots and put it in a cup just right to hold this. We will use this cup as a measure for the rest of the ingredients. Add the grated carrots to the rice cooker.

2. Add a quarter cup of sugar (the same cup used above). I like halwa which is mildly sweet. If you like it sweeter, add a little more sugar to the rice cooker.

3.  Add a cup of milk.

4. Switch on the rice cooker and let the halwa cook. The sweet aroma will spread within a few minutes!

5. If you just can’t think of halwa without ghee, then this is where you add it. Add a few spoons of ghee to the half-cooked halwa and continue to cook.

6. The rice cooker will switch over to ‘Keep warm’ mode once the halwa is done. If you continue to keep the halwa in the rice cooker, then it might become too dry. It’s better to transfer it to a serving bowl.

7. Garnish the halwa with finely cut almonds and cashews. Enjoy the hot gajar halwa as is or top it up with a scoop of your favorite ice cream and enjoy the hot-n-cold combination.