This thick kheer is very simple and easy to make. It is usually made for the festival of Sankranti in Maharashtra and also in Karnataka, Goa and other southern states of India. It’s a very easy to make dish and is delicious. Though it’s a sweet dish, it’s usually served along with the main meal as is common in India. You can serve it as a dessert if you follow the Western meal pattern. It can be eaten warm or at room temperature and can last up to a week if it is cooked in only sugarcane juice. Some people use less sugarcane juice and add a little jaggery dissolved in water to compensate for the sweetness of sugarcane juice. Traditionally, no one uses raisins or saffron in this dish, but I enjoy the taste of raisins so always add them and saffron always adds to the flavour. You can also use rose petals to garnish it if you are serving it in individual bowls. Make sure you use the ambemohar variety of rice, which is especially used in sweet dishes because of its fragrance.
Recipe: Darshana Muzumdar
Serves 4-8 as part of a traditional Indian meal
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup ambemohar rice
- 3 to 4 cups of sugarcane juice
- 1/2 cup or 50 gms cashewnut pieces
- 1/2 cup or 50 gms grated fresh coconut/thinly sliced fresh coconut
- 1/2 cup or 50 gms raisins (optional)
- 10-12 pods cardamom
- a small piece of nutmeg
- a pinch of saffron (optional)
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- a pinch of salt
Method
- Wash and drain rice. Dry it on a kitchen towel or under a fan till it is completely dry.
- Soak the cashews in a bowl with enough water to cover it and more.
- Soak the raisins in another bowl with enough water to just about cover them.
- Heat a thick bottomed steel pan and add the teaspoon of coconut oil. Do not use any other oil or fat.
- Add the dried rice and sauté it on medium heat till it turns brittle and white. This may take around a minute or two.
- Strain the sugarcane juice to remove any impurities and add it to the rice.
- Turn the heat up and let it come to a boil.
- Lower the heat to keep it simmering. Cover it and let it cook gently for a couple of minutes.
- Rinse and drain the soaked cashews. Add the cashews and raisins (with the soaking liquid) and the coconut to the rice mixture.
- Cover and cook on low heat for another 10-15 minutes and almost all the sugarcane juice has been absorbed. If you want the kheer to be sticky and wet, use more sugarcane juice and a sticky variety of rice.
- Pound the cardamom seeds and nutmeg piece into as fine a powder as you can.
- Add this to the rice mixture and turn off the heat. Mix the rice well.
- Dish out into a serving bowl and serve while still warm or at room temperature.
For the Whole-Food Plant-Based (WFPB) version:
This cannot be made into a whole plant based recipe because the main ingredient is sugarcane juice which is an extracted plant food. The best you can do is to replace the sugarcane juice with dates or another whole sweet fruit. But then it won’t taste the same at all. You could also use brown rice instead of white rice.
