Carrot Halwa and the Tamil Gettogether!

We have a great Indian community in our locality...and good number of tamilians too. We generally have couple of gettogether conducted by the Tamil speaking Desi's. Each time couple of families join together and host it. This time it was us. I joined along with couple of my friends and hosted it. We felt it was more or less like a wedding!! So much organizing went into this....we started talking about it couple of months ago!! So much prep work goes into it - like deciding on the date (set for April 24, 2010), venue, sending evite, deciding the menu for the pot luck and what not.....It was fun organizing it. We had a good turn out for the event - close to 90 people (including kids)!! My son a two year old was too excited about it and kept asking me about Tamil Gettogether!! He saw me preparing the invitation and I told him that it was the evite for the gettogether....the next time he saw it (probably couple of weeks later)...he said "tamin gettogether" that's how he pronounces the word "tamil"...it was really surprising to note that he could recollect it just by seeing the image on it!!

For the potluck my friend and myself decided to make "carrot halwa"...it is not just with bunch of carrots but around 3 kgs of carrots..Couple of our friends suggested that we get hold of a food processor to grate it..I was a bit reluctant about going ahead with the mammoth task but somehow convinced myself that I would be able to do it. I was all along scared about grating so many carrots...but agreed to make it with the strength my friend gave me!!

I started out on this venture couple of days ahead of the "D day" since I had other things that needed to be taken care of. We were planning for "Jodi Porutham (Made for Each Other)" contests for couples and I wanted to be free from the kitchen on that day to take care of other things.

Items needed for making the halwa -

This is the measure to make smaller quantities-
3 Cups of Grated Carrots
1 1/2 Cups of Milk (You may use whole milk too)
1 1/2 to 1 3/4th Cups of Sugar
1/2 Cup Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese (this is closer to the khova we get back home)
2 Tbspn Ghee
2 Tbpsn chopped nuts - cashew, almonds, raisins

Pour the milk over the grated carrots. Microwave the carrots first for 10 minutes. Then again do it for anotherr 10 minutes (increase the minutes based on the power of the microwave). Back home they pressure cook the carrots upto one whistle (you may do it the way you want!).

Take a heavy bottomed pan. Add the carrots and the sugar. Cook till the milk and the sugar are completely absorbed. This was the first time I tried making carrot halwa by adding ricotta...these days I have a liking towards ricotta cheese and want to try more dishes with it (like pasta filled with ricotta....will do it soon).
Add the ricotta cheese when it is still in the semi solid state. This ricotta adds the taste to the carrot halwa...makes it nice and wholesome. Some opt for adding almond paste too (if you are adding almond paste make sure you add it upfront along with the sugar so that the raw taste of the almond does not stay).

When the milk and sugar are absorbed from the halwa ..just add a Tbspn of ghee to prevent it from sticking on the bottom. This halwa does not need ghee that is a plus point right!!

Add the ghee and keep it for couple of more minutes. The halwa is ready to be served!!

Everyone loved the halwa that we prepared. Not just the halwa....all the food that the ladies prepared were yummy. Since we were running around taking care of things "as a host would normally do (athithi devo bhava)" we could not enjoy the food as much as we always do...generally all our friends will get to sit around a big table, chat and eat.... But we were happy that everyone who came to the gettogether enjoyed the food , the games and the party was a great success. We were happy that everyone enjoyed the evening hosted by us!! We had a swell time too.......Looking forward to the next gettogether this summer which would be an outside event !!

Spicy Vegetable Soup

I have been thinking for a long time about making a spicy hot vegetable soup and but  brushed it off as time consuming and never ventured to make it. Finally on one snowy day....when you get too lazy (just roam around the house) and not do anything....I set out to make this relishing spicy vegetable soup...I would consider the way I made it to the famous story - "The Stranger and the Magic Stone (Soup)"..I am pretty sure that everyone knows this story...the story goes like this...A stranger enters a village in the middle of the night - tired and hungry and goes about knocking every house but no one  opens the door for him. He gets an idea and knocks at the door saying he has a magic stone that can make delicious soup and they welcome him in. He asks for a vessel and starts adding water along with the magic stone...and murmurs within himself...how much good it will taste if we add tomatoes to this..so the oldest of the oldest kid runs to the garden and fetches it for him...and as the tomatoes are boiling...he murmurs again I wish we could add some carrots .. on hearing that the lady of the house goes and fetches some carrots for him...the stranger adds this to the soup and then as it is boiling adds wish we could add sweet potatoes to it...then the youngest child goes to fetch sweet potatoes for the soup...the stranger murmurs to himself wish we could add some beans to balance the sweet ness of the carrots and sweet potatoes...the elderly lady in that house plucks it from the garden and brings it to him....as the soup is boiling and getting to thicken he adds wish we had some salt and pepper to spice it up....

I would  say the way I made the soup was similar to the story above (except that I did not have any magic stone while making the soup!!)  ....As to how the story ends I am going to leave it to the readers imagination :) !! But as to they way my soup turned out - absolutely splendid!!

Ingredients -

Bay Leaf - 1

Fennel Powder - 1/2 tsp

Chilly Powder - 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon Stick - 1 inch piece

Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp

Tomatoes - 4 medium size

Onion - cut 1/2 cup
Spring Onions - 3 strands

Beans, Carrots , Sweet potatoes and Corn (frozen) - all together 1 1/2 cups cut into small pieces (you may even use frozen vegetables ...making things easier)

Salt and Pepper (crushed) - as per the taste

Butter - 1/2 TBS

Olive Oil - 1 tsp

Take a heavy bottomed pan and add the butter and oil. After the butter melts and the oil gets heated add the bay leaf , cinnamon stick and the onions. Saute till the onion turns slightly brown. Now add the onion bulb (the bottom part of the spring onions) and saute it for a while.

If you are not using frozen veggies, boil them in microwave and set it aside. Add this to the pan and fry them.

(If you are using frozen veggies you may just add it after the onions turn brown)

Make puree by blending the tomatoes and add some veggies that are boiling in the pan. Add this mixture to the boiling pot of soup. Now add salt, all the other powders, the green part of the spring onions and the pepper. Let it boil for 15 minutes or so in medium flame.

Simmer the stove and allow it to thicken in the low flame for atleast an hour and a half. It will slowly let the raw smell from the tomatoes to go off and will take in the flavours from the spices that were added to the soup. It will also thicken to a nice consistency.

Add croutons and serve the warm soup...it was good and apt for a snowy day!!