Ingredients:

1 to 2 lbs. grated carrots   1 qt. whole milk   1/2 pint of whipping cream   1 cup gur (raw sugar) (Follow the link for definition and substitution suggestion)   1 cup ground almonds   8 cardamoms (choti ilichi), ground   1/4 cup ghee (clarified butter) to begin with   1/4 chopped pistachios         (Important!!!! Get the saltless pistachios from an Indian store.         If you can't get saltless, eliminate from recipe or substitute with the saltless chopped nut of your choice.)   1/4 cup or so of raisons      OPTIONAL: unsalted cashews, unsalted pistachios, silver foil, or any other edible decoration you can think of.

Procedure:    Grate the carrots. You can leave the skins on if washed thoroughly. Dark, organic carrots come closest to the Indian red carrot in a rich, sweet taste. In the tallest cooking pot you have (a foot tall pot to boil pasta in is good)put the carrots, cream and milk. You MUST attend to the pot constantly during this step. Read the whole direction first before cooking. Bring the mix to a boil. It will seem to take forever for the milk to boil, but when it does, you must act quickly. The milk and cream will rise up, bubbling quickly to the top of the pot. As soon as it begins to rise in the pot, remove the pot from the burner, so that the mix will subside before it boils all over. Reduce the burner to a low simmer. Wait for the burner to cool a bit before putting the pot back on, then stir constantly until you are sure it isn't going to come to a boil again. You are after a gentle, small simmer here. Okay, now relax. From this point, you only have to attend the pot intermittently, say every 5 to 10 min. Stir as often as you need to so that the mix doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. The mix is to be cooked until it is reduced to dry (think damp sand). This takes forever.....hours and hours.       Once the mixture is dry, add the gur, almonds and cardamoms. (Use just the seeds from the cardamom pods, slightly crushed.) Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved and is dispersed throughout the mix. You will be stirring constantly until the end from this step on.      Now add the ghee. Stir until it soaks completely in the mix and the mixture begins to clump. Indians will keep adding ghee until no more will soak in. This is far too oily for western taste. Once the pudding is clumping, throw in the nuts and raisons (the amount of raisons is pretty much to taste). Stir well, remove from heat and let cool until it can be handled without burning your hands.       Now let your artistic genes run free. This is where the optional stuff comes in. The pudding can be shaped! Make a flower, make anything! In India, finely beaten leaves of silver foil are laid about the top (no they don't taste or feel funny...they just make the sweet look beautiful). This is one of those times a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is the gajar halwa I decorated for my eldest son's wedding:               I've also formed this into a lotus flower, a daisy and on one occasion...a horseshoe crab (don't ask). Just think edible play dough and go for it!

Suggested use: This is a very fancy, very rich, very time consuming dish as well as being very hearty. It is too heavy to serve in the summer and too rich for everyday. Save this one for a fancy dinner party or a holiday. It isn't really difficult even if time consuming but the result is stunning.
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