Rice Pudding - Kheer

It was a surprise some days back when one of my clients came to me and said, "I heard you are a good cook?" And I was like "where in the world did she hear that... hmm???" But then, I had to behave in office and said, "Yea, not good but OK." ;-)

The conversation went on and she asked me the recipe for rice pudding that she would have had somewhere, and I offered to make rice pudding for her along with providing the recipe. I didn't get enough time to cook it myself as some of my old friends turned up for dinner, so I cooked dinner that night for my old friends who also wanted to taste my food and Divu prepared the delicious Rice Pudding.


We are going to use cooked steamed rice for this pudding as it takes lesser time to cook than cooking raw rice in milk.

Quantity: Serves 5-6 - size does matter :-)
Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:
Plain Steamed Basmati Rice : 3 Servings

Whole Milk : 1.5Lts ( Just less than 1/2 gallon)

Sugar : 8-10 TSP ( depends how sweet you want it)

Green Cardamom : 5 pcs (Crushed)

Golden Raisins : 20 Pcs

Almonds + Cashew nuts : Coarse Grind - a bunch

Almonds + Cashew nuts : a bunch (Sliced for garnishing)
Surprise item : will tell later :-P

Pre-preparation

Steam Cooked Rice

Slice almonds and cashews

Cooking
Use a large vessel as the quantity is large. You may proportionate the quantity for preparing lesser amount of pudding.


Boil the milk and let it simmer for 2-3 mins on low flame, and while it is on heat, add sugar, crushed cardamom, almonds, cashews nuts, and raisins to it. After a while add cooked rice into the mixture and let it simmer for 10-15 mins. The reason we let it simmer with rice is to let the rice grains nicely soak milk and sugar. Before taking the mixture off the flame, check the rice by crushing it between your fingers or tasting a spoonful.

Also, make sure that the rice is thoroughly mixed with milk and is not settling down very frequently.

Just a while before you want to take down the mixture off the flame, add little bit of chocolate powder (surprise item) to give it a special taste.

Let the mixture cool for a while. The milk will now give a feel as if it is condensed milk and not regular whole milk.

Garnishing

Transfer the mixture in a serving bowl slowly. Garnish with sliced almonds, cashew nuts, and crushed cardamom.


Keep the bowl in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. This will condense the milk and make the pudding thicker.

Serving
Serve chilled. This dish is best when served chilled!

Sweet Cardamom Rice

Whenever we cook rice, we tend to cook it more than required and then worry what to do with the leftover rice. Well, here is something sweet we all have heard about, sweet rice, but cooked with some more ingredients.


It takes care of the leftover rice and also serves as a quick dessert.


Pre-Preparation
Plain Boiled White Rice, crush the rice with hand to avoid lumps.


Ingredients
Plain Boiled White Rice - 1 Bowl
Cardamom Powder (Elaichi) - Crushed cardamom is also OK to have - 1/2 TSP
Raisins - (Kishmish / Saungi) - 15-20
Sugar - 3 TSP
Fennel Powder (Saunf) - 1/4 TSP
Pure Ghee - 2 TSP


Procedure
Heat the Ghee in a non stick frying pan for half a min. Add raisins, little cardamom powder and little fennel powder with it (Save some fennel and cardamom powder for the end). Let it crackle for 20-30 secs and add rice to it. Make sure you crush the rice with hand to avoid lumps. Keep stirring the mixture constantly. We do it so that ghee gets nicely spread over the rice. You would feel the aroma of Desi Ghee around you. While stirring, add sugar and stir the mixture on medium flame for 1-2 minutes.


Serving
Transfer the mixture in a plate / bowl and sprinkle fennel powder and then cardamom powder over it. Serve hot and have it hot.

Papaya da halwa

This time around we explored the Fiesta grocery mall and bought a Texan-sized Amrican Papaya. Ok, it wasn't that big to be called Texan, i agree.

The next day, i got diet-conscious and thought of having fruit breakfast so asked Divs to get me Mr. Papeeta(papaya). Dangg, it tasted so a little weird, so i got back to my age old friend Banana. Nevertheless, ab Mr Papeeta is here so have to make something of it.

Divu took advice from Poojya Maata G, who suggested "Papaya ki kheer". So we were all set to prepare the kheer today but ended up with Papaya ka halwa! Let's see how. :D

Here are the usual halwa ingredients that we need:

• Papaya - 1 ripe medium-sized
• Sugar - 4 -5 TSP
• Milk - 1/2 ltr
• Almonds/Raisins/Cashew nuts
• Ghee - 2 TSP

Here's what we did:

1. Grate/mash the papaya and drain excess water.
2. Heat ghee in a kadhai (pan) and fry the papaya pulp on low flame for around 10 minutes.
3. Add sugar and stir well. Cook this mixture for 2 more minutes.
4. Now add milk, stir well, and let the mixture come to a boil.
5. Increase the flame to high and keep stirring constantly to avoid halwa from sticking to the kadhai.
6. When the milk mixture starts becoming dense and leaves the sides of the kadhai, add the dry fruits to it.
7. Stir for some more time. It's now ready whenever you feel it is! :D
8. Serve hot!

The smell of the Papaya halwa can fool anyone into thinking that it's Gajrela (Gajar ka halwa). Even the looks of both the halwas are the same.

Njoi! :)