Kheer

Since Lydia knows of my new passion for Indian cooking (and eating), she dug through her vast collection of cookbooks and found one for me: Complete Indian Cooking by Sterling Publishing Co, Inc. It has photos to go with each recipe and a nice introduction that describes the spices and cooking tools need to prepare the dishes in the book. It was in this book that I found a recipe for Kheer or rice pudding to complete the meal I made on Saturday night (see Monday's blog).

kheer with candied almonds

Kheer Recipe

1/3 cup long-grain rice
7 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup golden raisins
sugar to taste
5 ozs cream

• Put the ice and 4 1/2 cups milk in a heavy-bottom pan. Cook for 45-60 minutes until most of the milk has been absorbed - use low to medium heat and stir often.
• Add the remaining milk and the raisins. Increase heat until the milk is at a very low boil and constantly stir. Once the milk starts to thicken, reduce heat to low-simmer; stir often.
• Once the milk has thickened and is creamy, remove from heat and add sugar to taste (I think I added about 1/4 cup).
• Transfer pudding to a glass bowl and allow to cool. Stir occasionally to prevent a skin from forming.
• Stir in the cream and transfer to serving dishes. Serve cold and sprinkle with almonds, pistachios or other nuts.
  

Topping

1/4 cup raw almonds
1 tablespoon butter
honey or sugar

• In a small, non-stick pan, melt the butter over medium-high heat.
• Chop the almonds and add them to the butter.
• Constantly stir the almonds until they start to brown.
• Lightly drizzle with honey or sugar and mix well.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Comments

When I made this, the original recipe just called for simmering the milk - I ended up cooking my pudding for an extra hour before I turned up the heat. I also made sure to stir this well and use whole milk - I was worried about scalding the milk and having a skin form (neither of these things happened). I also think that it would be tasty to add some type of extract while the milk is thickening, like vanilla, orange or almond. Additionally, I think that you could also sweeten this with honey, but the sugar was good too. I really think that the candied almonds made this dish - it was a really nice end to all of the rich flavors and spices of the lamb dish. Please try it out and let me know what you added!