Kheer / Indian Rice Pudding for Blogging Marathon 4

Last week, people from Andhra (us included) celebrated "Ugadi" while Kannadigas celebrated 'Yugadi", their respective new years. I gather from the blogs that Tamilians are doing the same today while the other Southerners, Keralites are observing Vishu. My wishes to everyone who are celebrating today.
I planned to post a sweet bread recipe today. However, after drooling over all delectable posts during my morning blog hopping session, I too got in a festive mood. And so now present you this delectable kheer, enjoyed by adults and kids alike.

Kheer recipe in a nutshell ~ Basmati rice is cooked in milk until the rice is softly cooked and the mixture attains a thick consistency like custard. It is then flavored with cardamom powder and rosewater / saffron and garnished with a generous amount of sultanas and nuts.

If you are familiar with menus of Indian restaurants that dot this American continent, you know then that this is one of the quintessential desserts they present you. At least in the restaurants I have frequented, carrot halwa, gulab jamun, kheer and a mango dessert in summer are the norm. I know each one of those is delectable but seriously that is a limited choice considering the Indian array of desserts. And the more depressing point is that on any given day, you are going to get only one among the list. :) I don't know whether it is a matter of convenience or the chef thinks that these are crowd pleasers or just they freeze well. What ever may be the reason, so far I haven't seen any other dessert on Indian menus until now.

Ingredients for 4 servings:
1/4 cup Basmati rice
4 cups milk
6 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
Few saffron strands (Soak in a Tbsp of warm milk for about 10 minutes.)
Slivered / roughly chopped almonds, pistachios & raisins for garnishing



Method:
* Wash and soak the rice in water for about 20 minutes or in hot water for about 10 minutes. Throw away the water used to soak. At this point, you can saute the drained rice with a tsp of ghee for a couple of minutes. This is optional though.
* Then add the milk and rice to a deep sauce pan or a thick bottomed vessel or best of all, a non stick, deep pan. Bring the milk to a boil and lower the heat. Then allow the mixture to simmer until the rice is cooked and the milk appears thicker. Keep stirring in between to avoid scorching. Add a small stainless spoon to the container you are using to cook the mixture to avoid the milk from overflowing.
* Then add the sugar, cardamom powder, saffron strands along with milk they are soaked in, raisins / sultanas and nuts. Cook until the sugar melts and turn off the heat.
* Kheer can be served warm or chilled. Garnish with more nuts if desired.

And the other bloggers who are participating in this Marathon 4 are
Diabetes Diet/Management:PJ  
Kid Friendly Recipes:Me, Priya Suresh, Divya
Seven Days of Soup:Ila, Smita P 
Seven Days of Indian Bread:Monika
Seven Days of Cakes: Bhagyashri
30 Minutes Meals:Archana  
Seven days of Condiment:Kamalika, Srivalli



This kheer is on it's way to Priya Suresh's Celebrate Sweets - Sweets with Rice, an event originally started by Nivedita.

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