Rice Kheer

A warm, rich and lightly sweetened kheer with a hint of saffron. This is such a simple dessert that is scrumptious enough for your taste buds to scream 'whoa'. With a few ingredients from your pantry, you can pull this together in no time. Here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

2 cups Milk 

1 cups Long grain/Basmati Rice (cooked)

3tbsp Sugar

1tbsp Raisins

1tbsp Pistachios (chopped)

1tbsp Almonds (chopped)

1/8tsp Cardamom powder

1 pinch Saffron

How to:

• Soak the raisins in water to puff'em up.
• Crush and grind the saffron with 1 tsp of sugar using a mortar and pestle.

• Heat the milk in a heavy bottomed pan on medium flame. (I used 2% reduced fat milk. You can replace with whole milk for a rich consistency.)

• Add the rice and heat it through, stirring occasionally.

• Now add the crushed saffron and sugar and cook'em until the milk is reduced and thickens.

• Then add the chopped nuts and raisins, mix well.

• Switch off the flame and add the cardamom powder.

•  Serve it warm or cold garnishing with chopped nuts.

Pistachio Custard/Pudding

This is a dessert i have been wanting to make at home for quite sometime. Whenever i think of custard, i remember my PG hostel days, wherein we get a small fruit custard bowl as dessert for lunch every Wednesday. Who could resist eating just one? So, we (me n friends) sneak and take away (decent way to say 'steal', hehe) 3 or 4 bowls, when the person at the hostel food counter turns her back. The custard tastes even better this way. It will be super sweet and totally irresistible. Here, when i get to taste Crème brûlée at first, i felt the same spongy custard that just melts in my mouth. I can never have enough of it. I didn't know custard is that easy to prepare until i landed vahrehvah's Caramel Custard recipe. It turned out so delicate with mild sweetness and soft texture thats simply yummylicious. Here goes the recipe for you to try it out,

Ingredients:

2 cups Milk

3 Eggs

1/4 cup + 3tsp Sugar

1/4tsp Vanilla Extract

1tbsp Water

1tbsp Pistachios (chopped), for sprinkling

Food color (optional)

How to:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Set a small baking pan inside a big baking dish half filled with water.

• Heat the 3tsp sugar in a pan along with water and let it caramelize in a medium-low flame. (I tried twice and didn't get the caramelization, instead the sugar dried up and became hard, hehe. So i just spread the lumps inside the small baking pan and kept aside.)

• Break the eggs in a bowl and whisk'em along with the 1/4cup of sugar.

• Then pour the vanilla extract and milk, and continue whisking until everything blends.

• Now pour the milk mixture over the sugar that has been spread and bake for 45 mins. 

• Remove and let sit for 20 mins. With a knife or spoon run the sides and separate the custard sticking to the sides.

• With a plate placed upside down on the baking pan, carefully transfer the custard onto the plate.

• The sugar would have melted and runs over the custard. Refrigerate it, sprinkle the chopped pistachios and serve chill.

Sending the treat to Lisa's Sweet as Sugar Cookies event.

Nan Khatais (Indian Butter Biscuits)

The treats are packed up and we are ready to hit the road tomorrow. We are going to California on a road trip and meet a couple of our friends and cousin on our way. I am very excited to see'em and happy to deliver these home made biscuits in person. Well, to talk about the biscuits, these are light, buttery sweetnesses that literally dissolves in your mouth. The nuts are so rich and crunchy, that makes irresistible and you can't stop just munching one. And these are egg-less cookies that are very popular and called biscuits in India. They are served as a evening snack along with coffee or tea. The buttery aroma while baking, smelt heavenly and perfumed the whole kitchen.  Also, i have made two versions of butter biscuits here, other than flour combination, the methods are pretty similar. Here it goes,

This is a pistachio butter biscuit, topped with chopped pistachios and made from a combination of three flours. This one was Senthil's pick among the two.
Ingredients:

1/3 cup APF (Maida)

1/3 cup fine Semolina (Rava)

1/2 cup Gram Flour (Besan)

1/2 cup unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

2/3 cup Sugar

3 green Cardamom Seeds (powdered)

1 pinch Baking Soda

1-2tbsp Pistachios (coarsely chopped)

 How to:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• Mix together the maida, semolina, gram flour, cardamom and baking soda.

• In another bowl, blend the butter and sugar together.

• Now, blend the flour mixture in batches to the butter-sugar mixture.

• Divide the dough into small lime size balls, smoothen'em with your palms, make a grid or star with a knife and gently press the chopped pistachios.

• Do the rest of the dough in a similar manner and arrange'em on the baking sheet.

• Bake for 13 mins or until they turn golden brown on top.

• Remove the baking sheet and let rest for 3 mins, before you transfer'em to cooling rack. (The half bitten biscuit, that was me hehe, couldn't resist)

• Serve as a snack or dessert.

Almond Pressed Butter Biscuit:

This is an Almond Butter Biscuit, made from maida (APF) and warm butter with an Almond pressed on each of its center. This one is the winner in my taste testing.

Ingredients:

1 cup APF (Maida)

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

1/2 cup unsalted Butter (melted)

1/4tsp Baking Soda

3 Green Cardamom Seeds (crushed/powdered)

1 pinch Salt

8-10 Almonds (for garnishing)

How to:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• Mix together the dry ingredients: APF, sugar, baking soda, cardamom and salt.

• Pour the butter over the flour mixture and knead, resulting a soft dough.

• Divide the dough into 12 equal parts, smoothen in between your palms and press the center with your thumb and place an almond.
• Follow the same procedure for the remaining dough and arrange it on the baking sheet.

• Bake for 20 mins and cool in a cooling rack.

• Serve the biscuit as a snack or dessert.