Carrot Burfi

Kheers, halwas, cakes, salad, curry and sambars using carrots are familiar entities. But, I had not tasted a Carrot Burfi till now. Ever since I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. And when I made it, I was surprised how quickly this burfi made its way to my list of probable Diwali goodies!

I used Kamala’s recipe for this. Had a couple of doubts and the benevolent Kamala gave me the needed instructions. I altered her recipe only on the sugar front. This recipe is fairly deceptive in the sense that it uses a whoopingly large amount of carrots and yields a substantially small number of Burfis. So, I would sincerely suggest anybody to hit the market, stock up on the carrots and then try out this Burfi. It was so tasty that I had a trouble saving up some pieces for the clicks since they were vanishing. The relieved public (me and K) gobbled up the remaining as soon as the photo session was over!

Ingredients (makes 8 small pieces)

Carrots (washed, peeled, grated and roasted in ghee till raw smell disappears): 1 cup
Ghee: 3 tbsp
Sugar: 40% of the measure of ‘processed’ carrots or more or less per taste
Cashews/Badam/ Raisins/ Pistachios: 2 tbsp finely chopped
Cardamom powder: ¼ tsp
Saffron (optional): 3 -4 strands
Water: 3 – 4 tbsp

Method:

Take a heavy bottomed kadai. Heat a tsp of ghee and roast the dry fruits till golden brown.
Wash the carrots. Peel and grate them. Now (without adding any water), roast them in 2 tbsp ghee on a medium flame till the raw smell appears and it has cooked to about 75 percent. You could add the cardamom powder also while roasting.
Now measure this quantity of ‘processed’ carrots. For every cup of this, you will need 0.4 cup of sugar (or even less, since carrots are inherently sweet).
Now in the kadai, add the sugar and water and make sugar syrup of one string consistency.
When this is done, add the processed carrots.
Keep stirring constantly.
Initially the mass would become a little loose. But by constant stirring, it would reach a stage where it comes together like hard ball. It will take some time and a lot of stirring.
While stirring, add some saffron if you want to.
Immediately pour into a greased tray.
After it has cooled a bit, make pieces.
Enjoy!


This delicious burfi is my contribution to to ‘Bookmarked Recipes – Every Tuesday’ event by Priya Mitharwal.

It also finds its way to 'Only' Festive Food Event conceptualised by Pari and hosted this month by Preeti.