Kheer

Kheer

“Kheer” is a traditional Indian desert, which is cooked throughout India, an essential dish in many feasts and celebration across regions and relegions. Indian food is as diverse as India itself, hence regional variations in recipes are common and the one that I am about to share is from Northern India. A traditional recipe which has a thick n creamy texture and loaded with dry fruits….

Ingredients

Rice – 1/4th cup
Full cream Milk – 6 cups
Sugar – 1/2 cups
Green Cardamom, powdered – 4
Almonds – 10 – 12
Pistachios – 12 – 14
Cashew – 6-8
Raisins – 1 tablespoon

Method

Clean and wash rice until the water is clear. Soak rice in water for 45 minutes to an hour. Once the rice is soaked well and has softened crush the rice into small pieces.

Heat milk in a heavy bottom pan, once the milk comes to a boil add powdered cardamom, reduce heat and let it simmer on low flame for 8-10 minutes.

Add rice, stir and let the rice cook in milk, keep checking and stir the rice ocassionally to avoid the formation of any lumps. This will also avoid the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Keep scraping the dried milk from the side of the pan and add to the milk in the pan.

While the kheer is cooking, blanch the almonds and pistachios, and chop them.( please see notes below for blanching ). Slit the Cashew into halves.

Once the rice is almost done, and the milk starts to thicken add the chopped nuts mix well and add the sugar. When you add sugar, the sugar melts and the kheer becomes a bit runny but don’t worry, continue cooking and stir ocassionaly. This is the most critical time as once you add sugar there are chances that the kheer will stick to the bottom of the pan, so be alert. Very important don’t forget to scrape the dried milk on the sides of the pan and keep adding it to the pan.

By now the kheer would also thicken, add the raisins, mix well and turn off the flame.

Pour the kheer into individual servings, garnish with some chopped almonds and pistachios and enjoy it hot, warm or even cold.

Notes:

I have used Basmati rice for making the Kheer, hence had to break it, by doing so the rice will cook faster and the kheer will have a thick creamy consistency. However if you use small grain rice, the result would be the same.

For this Kheer recipe I have used full cream milk as we want the kheer to be thick and creamy, but if you want you could use lowfat milk too.

Please note that the kheer will thicken up even after you turn off the flame so I suggest that you turn off the flame before it reaches the desired consistency.

Blanching – Is a process of cooking in which the fruit or vegetable and in this case Almonds and pistachios are put into hot boiling water, for a very short time, removed and put into ice cold water or under running water to stop the cooking process.
When we blanch Almonds and Pistachios, the skin becomes soft and can be easilly removed.

I have blanched the nuts in the microwave as it is very easy and comes handy.
Put the almonds in a microwave safe bowl, add enough water so its well immersed and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes.