Kheer - Spiced Rice Pudding

Kheer - Spiced Rice Pudding 

Following on from yesterday’s nostalgic post about dhal, I bring to you another classic gem. Kheer, a really simple desert that I am sure everyone has their own family version of. This is my take on the classic recipe that I made during my lunch break the other day.

Mornings are often quite crazy in our house, with both me and the hubs on work calls and trying to home school the past week. I find one of the things we struggle with is getting 👦 to concentrate and by the afternoon all he wants to do is play in the garden. All I want for him to do is play in the garden too, so I try to squeeze as much short spurts of phonics, maths and literacy into the morning. Plus add a very independent toddler to the mix, by lunchtime I need to reboot to make it through the rest of the day, and for me cooking and chopping is my chill zone, hence lots of random, arguably unnecessary cooking emerges from my kitchen these days.

I made these into smaller individual glass pots, easier to portion control and also gave some out to family for their pudding of the day, but you could just place into bowls when serving. I find using half semi skimmed milk makes a lighter kheer, perfect for summer evenings but you still get some creaminess from the rice starch and full fat milk. For the kids I did the same omitting the cardamom and almonds. 

Ingredients 

600ml semi skimmed

600ml full fat

1 cup of basmati rice

3-4 tbsp of caster sugar

1-2 tsp ground cardamom 

1/4 cup of sliced almonds 

Makes 8 small individual bowls or 4 larger ones

Method

1.Rinse rice and then soak in cold water for 20-30 minutes.

2.In a heavy bottom add in both milks and heat gently for 5 minutes.

3.As the milk comes up to boiling add in rice and stir, cook on a medium-high heat for 15 minutes, stirring regularly to avoid the milk sticking or bubbling over.

4.Add in sugar, continue to stir and cook over a low- medium heat for another 10-15 minutes until all rice grains are cooked through.

5.Add in cardamom and almonds, reserving a few to garnish the top, allow to cook for 5 minutes before placing in individual pots and topping with garnish.

6.Enjoy either hot or cold, I prefer mine cold.