Carrot halwa with ice cream (Gajar ka halwa ice cream)

Gajar ka halwa is an quintessential Indian dessert found almost in every home or restaurant. This is a dessert that reigns supreme in India. It is extremely rich, creamy, gently spiced and beautifully flavored.

The commercial versions are quite poor, bland, and usually topped with poor-quality commercial ice cream. I have always been peeved by this fact, so I created this recipe to give my guests a true version of this wonderful dessert.

Here, I have used winter-deep red carrots. They have a lovely earthy flavor that notches up this dessert. You can also use regular carrots if the red variety is not available. In addition, the dessert is spiced to add nuances of flavours, and yes, the black pepper adds that very subtle hint of heat. The other spices bring this dessert alive.

Finally, to convert this dessert into ice cream, I had to steep the cream with the same spices so that we did not dilute the original flavours with plain cream. The result is extraordinary. You can also serve the gajar ka halwa by itself, but please do not use plain ice cream.

The base recipe for the gajar ka halwa is from this amazing cookbook. It is pure decadence; all I had to do was convert it to ice cream. The recipe is not that hard to make; it just needs time to cook down the milk slowly and caramelize the sugars.

Yamuna Devi's cookbook is probably the first cookbook I bought when I moved to the US 30 years ago for my Ph.D. Over the years, I have cooked almost half the recipes. It is the cookbook that taught me technique and flavor profiles and always gave me a wonderful meal. This vegetarian cookbook is essential on any shelf; it is the bible of Indian vegetarian cuisine.

For more recipes from this amazing cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

1 lb red carrots (or regular), scrubbed thoroughly and coarsely grated

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2-3/4 cup brown sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon green cardamom powder

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 piece mace, powdered

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 generous pinches of saffron

1/4 cup pistachios

1/4 cup black raisins

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup ghee

Roasted salted cashew nuts to garnish

Heavy cream (optional)

For the ice cream:

3 cups heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon ground green cardamom

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder

A pinch ground cloves

A generous pinch saffron

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

Add the carrots, condensed milk, sugar, cream, and all the spices to a large non-stick pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 45 minutes. You will see the liquids slowly evaporate and the mix thicken. Stir the pot often to prevent the milk solids from sticking to the bottom and burning.

Simmer for an additional 20-25 minutes, stirring almost continually, until the milk caramelizes and becomes light golden in colour and paste-like.

Heat the ghee in a separate pan with the pistachios, almonds, and raisins, and sauté for 3-4 minutes on a low flame until the nuts turn golden. Tip this mix into the cooking carrot mix.

Mix in well and fry the halwa on a low flame for about 30-40 minutes. You need to keep the flame low not to burn the milk solids. The halwa will turn from a light golden to a deep brown, and the oils will begin to seep out. Taste the halwa and make sure the milk solids do not taste pasty but rich and caramelized.

Serve warm topped with a salted cashew nut and cream on the side for those who would like it. No ice cream lease; enjoy the dish in its purest form, not drowned out by really cheap ice cream.

To make the ice cream, heat the cream with all the spices until it just begins to simmer. Stir the cream to mix in all the spices evenly, and remove it from the stove in 2 minutes. Let the mixture cool on the counter to allow the spices to infuse the cream.

When cool, mix about half the gajar ka halwa into the cream. You want to add just enough gajar ka halwa so that the cream is barely runny. Mix well with a spatula, breaking down all the lumps. Taste and make sure you get a strong aroma and taste of gajar ka halwa.

Churn on the ice cream setting in your ice cream maker. Alternatively, you can freeze this directly in the freezer overnight.

Serve by itself or with scoops of the gajar ka halwa.

Note: Because of all the fats in it, this ice cream will never become completely solid. It will get very thick and very cold but not set into a solid like commercial ice creams.