The Hindu festival season was kick started almost a month back and an important and colourful festival is round the corner. It is Navaratri (nine nights) aka Dashera that is to start in a couple of days. Many families have the habit of showcasing special dolls depicting events or episodes outlined in many Hindu scriptures. It is a wonderful time because we get to invite people home and serve some interesting snacks and socialise. Am quite sure one cannot get away with no sweet dish to offer when people visit us and I thought I should post a few of them now. I tried this recipe on Friday because it is a normally a dessert day at home. I started off thinking I will make carrot halwa but somehow preferred to make something like a cake or burfi so it can be sliced. This way I can serve it on one snack plate alongside sundal and not bother about cups and spoons. The carrots need something added to them so they stand firm as a slice and after a lot of thinking I chose oats. The advantage of oats I think is that it does not have a strong taste or flavour of its own but lends texture and consistency and to me that would help preserve the sweetness of the carrots. I usually roast oats and powder fine and keep that handy. The carrots I used were not juicy so I had to grind them at two different stages. My husband, who does not usually eat sweets quite like this as well and the general feedback was that it could have been a bit sweeter. For someone like me, without a sweet tooth and a huge conscience, it was good enough, but if you like it sweeter, then add maybe another 1/8th to 1/4th cup sugar. I did not want to add cardamom but you could if you like. Here is the recipe...
2 large carrots
2 heaped tablespoon milk powder
¼ cup oats flour
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
2-3 tablespoon ghee
2 tablespoon raisins
Grind the carrots in a food processor so it is as fine as possible. If the carrots are not juicy, you may want to add a couple of spoons of water or milk
Heat some ghee and fry the raisins until puffed up and keep aside
In the same ghee, add the carrots and sauté until it is almost done. If needed add more ghee and also if you like it finer, now is the time to grind it again in the food processor, ofcourse after cooling. I used my hand blender and ground it further.
Add the oats flour and mix well
Add the sugar and mix well. The sugar will dissolve and keep stirring until all the moisture is absorbed again
Add the milk powder and keep stirring until it all comes together and comfortably leaves the walls of the dish. Mix the raisins as well
Drop this on a greased plate and let it cool for about five minutes
Cut into required size and serve
Although you can comfortably make slices, the slices will not be as firm as mysore pa so a wee bit more care in handling them will help
Carrot cake looks healthy and irresistible..
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