Carrot Almond Kheer

We have had a series of special occassions in the month of august. Aadi velli, Aadi perrukku, Aavani avittam and not to forget gokulashtami that is fast approaching. Apart from the rituals festivals also mean lot of cooking and full course meal with vada and payasam. After a round of semiya and kuruvi payasam, today we decided to do carrot almond kheer. It is tasty, rich and loaded with the goodness of carrots and almonds

Ingredients
Carrots - 5
Milk - 3.5 cups (i used 2%)
Sugar - 3/4 - 1 cup
Almonds - 20
Raisin - 10
Cardomon powder - 1/2 tsp
ghee - 6 tbsp

Method
* Soak almonds in warm water for atleast half hour.
* Peel the skin af almonds (delegated to my 4 year old:) He loved doing it)
* Cut carrots into small pieces
* Grind the carrots and almonds together into a slightly coarse paste in a mixer.
* Heat a pan with 1 tbsp ghee
* Saute raisins in the ghee until they turn plump and keep them aside
* Add 2 tbsp of ghee, and then add the carrot-almond mixture
* Let the carrot almond mixture cook and keep adding the remaining ghee in parts
* Cook until the raw smell of carrot goes away and the mixture is well cooked.
* Add 2 cups of milk and let it cook. Keep stirring to ensure the bottom does not get burnt
* As the mixture cooks, it will thicken a bit. Add the sugar and the remaining milk and allow it to cook some more.
* Add cardomon and give it a mix.
* Trasfer to a bowl and garnish with raisins

Notes
* Ensure the carrot almond mixture is well cooked before adding milk. The kheer will not
taste good if you can taste raw carrots.
* You can do this without almonds aswell, but they definitely add a nice flavor and richness
to the kheer
* Though I have not tried it myself, you should be able to use almond milk instead of regular milk.
* Increase the amount of milk based on the consistency you prefer. The amount I have specified will give a slightly thicker kheer.

Sending this to Kalyani's HLI carrots