Kheer / Indian Rice Pudding

There are some dishes that take a long time to make. But, they are well worth it. This Indian dessert is one such dish.  If you make it the way it is suppose to be made and eat, I can promise you that you will never ever say rice pudding is good in a restaurant. What they serve in Indian restaurants (most of which I have visited) is almost crap compared to home made kheer.

Method and proportions of making this rice pudding might vary a bit from one state to another in India, but most of them have rice toasted in ghee, cooked in milk and boiled till it gets thick, sweetened with sugar and garnished with nuts and raisins. I had a bunch of people at my place and that is why I made this much of kheer. If I want to generalize a formula, it is 1 part rice to 16 parts milk to 2 parts sugar. Ghee amount can be just enough for toasting the nuts and rice or more. I usually use 1/3 part ghee.

One year back - Cardamom Granola
Ingredients:
Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Milk - 12 cups
Heavy cream or half and half - 3 - 4 cups (I used 3 cups) (See Notes)
Sugar - 2 cups (You can alter this based on your taste)
Ghee - 1/3 - 1/2 cup divided use
Cardamom - 6 - 8 pods powdered
Saffron - few strands
Cashews - broken 1/2 cup
Raisins - 1/2 cup

Method:
Rinse rice in enough water. Drain. In a large pan preferably a non stick pan, heat 2 TBSP of ghee. Add the very well drained rice and toast for few minutes until lightly golden and nice aroma comes. Add all the milk and keep stirring it. Make sure you break the skin it forms often to prevent milk from flowing out of the pot. Stir often to prevent burning. Let the rice cook completely. Now add the heavy cream or half and half. Stir and let it keep boiling till it gets thick. Add saffron strands. If it looks like too much liquid, don't worry. Everything will be absorbed and the end product will be a nice creamy pudding. This will take at least an hour or more to get to that consistency. Add sugar and bring it to a boil again. Add cardamom powder. In another small pan, heat remaining ghee. When hot, add cashews. When cashews are golden, add raisins and let them plump up. Add the entire mixture to the main pot with milk and rice and mix well. Serve warm or cold.

Notes:
For 1 cup rice, you need exactly 1 gallon of milk. Preferably whole milk. I was using 2 % milk and that is the reason for using 3 cups half and half and since it is thicker than milk, I used less.

Linking this to #ricelove held at Junia's place.

Enjoy.