Carrot Halwa

I got this recipe off the Hairy Bikers. As I was baking for people at work (self-celebrating my three year anniversary with my current employer), I doubled all the ingredients and rolled out the halwa on a tray so it would make a slice.

This recipe is extremely expensive if you get the saffron and the vanilla pod for the cream. I did buy them and only then noticed how expensive they were. In the end, I didn't make the cream as I was taking the slice into work, so the vanilla beans are still unopened. For the price of gold, it's just as well! Ghee is also not cheap, and you don't actually have to double the ghee if you double the rest of the recipe, because it's used just in the frying of semolina. An Indian person at work said that the whole liquid off the frying is supposed to go into it, but I just poured off the fat into the sink and chucked in the fried semolina.

For the final step, I didn't serve it in glasses or with cream, but simply lay it out on a baking tray, pressed it flat, and put it in the fridge. It set nicely overnight, I then sliced it to take to work.

This is a really tasty dessert. It's not as sweet as I expected it to be (and apparently not sweet enough to be truly Indian, hehe). The cardamom makes it extremely moorish. You can also go without the saffron as it's just for the colour I think.