Kheer- Indian Sweet Pudding

An Indian celebration or festival is incomplete without a plate of mithai (sweets). Wedding, Divali, Baby Shower or even celebrating an A* in your GCSE- there may be no specified menu for these occasions, but every time sweets are a must. Indian sweets are extreme: glistening with syrup and luridly coloured, they are definitely hard to resist.

Here is the recipe for one of the most common desserts- Kheer, Indian flavourful pudding, very simple in preparation.

Ingredients (4 servings)

1.1 litre (2 pints) of whole milk

¼ cup or long grain rice, such as basmati

2-3 Tbspn of sugar (or to taste)

4 whole green cardamom pods

10 pistachio nuts

 

Put the ingredients in the pan. Slowly  lower the heat and simmer until the rice is tender and grains are starting to break up. Stirring from time to time will prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan. When the mixture thickens and the milk is reduced by about half, remove the rice kheer from heat and place into individual serving bowls. It can take as long as 1 hour to cook. Garnish with crushed pistachios, almonds or strand of saffron. Kheer can be served either warm or chilled.  

Kheer recipes have evolved to suit regional and personal preferences. Every part of India has own version of Kheer. Often toasted vermicelli is used instead of rice. If you wanna speed up the cooking process, you can use already cooked rice, but make sure there is no salt in it. You can use honey as an alternative natural sweetener.

Kheer may have different densities. It is usually of a medium consistency. At one extreme it can be as dense as dry sweet dish, but you can also make it very liquid- that you can drink in the cup. As the pudding thickens in cooking process, you can easily rectify it by adding more milk.

Enjoy!