Rice kheer – Creamy and aromatic Indian rice pudding

Rice kheer (rice pudding) is an integral part of a Bengali birthday, it was Daddy S’s birthday, so I had to prepare kheer. He likes rice kheer very much with lots and lots of raisins in it; he likes raisins so much that if possible, he would put raisins in mutton biriyani also 😊😊.

Two days before Daddy S’s birthday, I had ordered 1 liter of full cream milk and 1 kg of Gobindho bhog rice from an online shop, but alas, in the morning they said Gobindo bhog rice was out of stock….oh God!!! What do I do now? With this Corona think going on, I just can’t step out of the house and get your stuff, but I had no option. Reluctantly, I put on all my protective gear and went to the nearest supermarket, no luck; then I went to another grocery shop, no luck there also ☹. I started feeling nervous and started blaming myself, why didn’t I stock it up earlier; I almost felt like crying in the middle of the road 😨. Suddenly, the shopkeeper of the grocery store told me to check one of the nearby chicken shops, the owner of that shop is a Bengali, they might stock this kind of rice…ohh, what a relief. I almost ran to that shop, I needed that rice before this shop also runs out of stock, and thank God, they had a couple of packets in store. My day was saved. Along with the rice, I bought some chicken drumsticks also for preparing evening snacks, as eating out was not an option we needed something spicy in the evening for @home celebration 😊😊.

I started the birthday preparation from the evening before Daddy S’s birthday; marinated the chicken and kept in the fridge for preparing chicken drumsticks next day and then I started preparing the kheer.

You can prepare kheer for any special occasion or even when you just want something sweet.

Ingredients for preparing kheer:

• 1-liter full cream milk
• ½ cup of rice, I prefer Gobindo bhog rice because of its aroma, you can use any kind of aromatic rice
• 4 green cardamoms, slit open or slightly crushed
• 1 cup of sugar or jaggery, Daddy S likes his kheer real sweet
• 2 tbsp raisins, soaked in water
• 2 tbsp chopped cashews, I soak the cashews and make a paste out of it to make the kheer more creamy

Method:

• Wash the rice under running water till water turns clear and keep it soaked for 30 mins
• After 30 mins, drain the water and keep the rice aside
• Heat a heavy bottom pan, I used a non-stick kadhai
• Add the milk and keep stirring so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom (even in non-stick it gets stuck), keep the flame at medium to high
• Once the milk starts boiling, lower the heat add the rice and keep stirring
• Add the crushed cardamom pods at this time
• Keep cooking till the milk reduces to half and the rice is cooked very well
• Add in the cashew paste and stir it well
• Add the sugar or jaggery and mix well, cook for another 5 minutes
• Squeeze the water out from the raisins add it in the kheer and switch off the gas. I add the raisins at the end because sometimes due to the sourness of the raising the milk might curdle and all your effort will go down the drain ☹

Now let your kheer cool down, and as it cools it will continue to thicken and give that creamy texture to the kheer.

We like our kheer chilled but it's up to you, you can serve it hot also. You can garnish it with more chopped dry fruits, add a splash of rose water to add more flavor to it 😊

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