Rice Kheer is a traditional and very popular sweet dish of India. Made with milk, rice, and sugar it is a complete meal in itself. And when you add Cardamom powder, Saffron, and nuts to it…Wow.  Rice Kheer goes really well with Poori, bhindi, Kadoo and aloo ki sabji.

When I was young I was so fond of Kheer that I used to eat roti/ Chappati with it. My mom used to make it quite often. After getting married I realized It is relished equally in my in-law’s house.

There is an old custom in our family. After marriage girls cook a special meal, their first preparation in the kitchen, for their in-laws. Elders of the family give them gifts as their blessings.

Guess what? I and my SIL made Rice Kheer (Under my MIL’s guidance of course) for our first venture in the kitchen 🙂

My younger son ate all his yesterday meals with kheer (Or maybe I should say because of Kheer).

 

How to make Rice Kheer

 

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients:

¼ cup short grain Basmati rice or Basmati tukda rice( Washed and soaked for 1 hour)
1 liter Milk (I have used full cream)
¼ cup sugar + 1/8 cup more if needed
A few strands of saffron
¼ tsp cardamom powder (Elaichi powder)
2 tbsp raisins

2 tbsp almonds (Soaked for 4-5 hours)
pistachio for garnish

To make Rice Kheer

 

Take a thick bottomed pan with a little water (2 tbsp). Adding water to the pan before boiling milk reduces its chance of sticking to the bottom. Add milk to the pan and boil it. After it comes to boil add rice. Short grain rice is better for use in kheer as they get mixed uniformly resulting in a thick kheer.

If you do not have them you can use long grain rice also. I use long grain Rice for Pulao, Meethe chawal, and fried rice.

Soak saffron strands in 2 tbsp milk in a separate bowl.

After giving rice and milk mixture a boil reduce the flame to low and let it simmer for ½ hour. Rice kheer should always be cooked on low flame. It tastes much better this way and there is less chance of it sticking to the bottom of the pan. Keep on stirring in between.

After 30 minutes the kheer will be thick and rice grain would be very soft. Add sugar, cardamom powder, saffron, and washed raisins to the mixture and give it another boil. Taste the kheer and adjust the sugar according to your taste. After 5 minutes Switch off the flame. Let the kheer cool.

Remove the skin of soaked almonds. Garnish Rice Kheer with pistachio and almond slivers. You can use almonds without soaking also. It’s as per your taste.

You can serve it both ways- Hot or cold.  If you want to serve it cold keep it in the fridge for 2-3 hours. I personally like cold kheer.

 

You can try my Phirni recipe also.

 

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