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.

Rava Kesari

Ingredients:

1 cup Rava/Sooji

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1/2 cup Ghee

10 Cashews (broken)

1/2tsp Cardamom extract

1 Pinch food color

1 pinch Saffron (optional)

2 1/2 cups Water

1 pinch Salt

How to:

• Heat the ghee in a skillet, add the cashews and roast'em in low flame. (Don't be stringent on ghee)

• When it starts browning, add the rava slowly and roast'em until you get nice aroma and it gets cooked.

• Now add the sugar, mix well and roast for 2 mins.

• Then pour the water and make sure no lumps form. (You can also replace water with milk)

• Now, add the salt and food color, mix well and cook in medium flame. (Adding salt enhances the sweetness.)

• When the mixture starts to thicken, add the cardamom extract, saffron and cook till the perfect consistency.

• Reduce the flame, close the lid and cook for 3 more mins.

Serve the dessert hot or cold.