Kitchen Experiments: Phirni-cum-Rice Kheer

Throughout my childhood, I mercilessly rejected rice-based desserts. Don't get me wrong- I LOVE rice. To distraction. (And weight gain, but that's another story) But rice was indelibly stamped on my mind as raw material for sterling savoury dishes- regal biryanis, delicate pulaos, down-to-earth khichadis and the ultimate comfort food, dal-chawal-pickle. Sweet rice was a strict no-no.

And then came my life-changing visit to Sagar Sweets during Ramzaan a few years ago. One spoonful of their creamy, just-set phirni and I was a convert. So much so that I even tried recreating it at home. Repeatedly.

I now have a version that I adore and which is vouched for by family and friends, so I have no qualms in sharing it here.  My version is a cross between rice kheer (more liquid, made with whole grains of rice) and phirni (almost-solid, made with ground rice). I use different flavourings as per my mood but this one here is a crowd-pleaser.


Ingredients:
1/4th katori or 2 heaped tablespoons Basmati or any long-grained rice
700 ml full-fat milk
Sugar, as per taste
Chopped pistachios, almonds and cashews (the more, the merrier!)
Seeds from 3-4 cardamom pods, crushed
2 teaspoons cinnamon powder (use Sri Lankan cinnamon, its quite mild and meant for desserts)


Process:
Pour the milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat it on a low-medium flame.

Wash the rice and let it dry thoroughly ( I didn't have patience, so I dry-roasted the rice till it was dry)
Reserve 1/3rd of the rice as whole grains and add it to the milk as it heats
Grind the remaining rice in the coffee/chutney grinder very briefly (2-3 pulses, max) till a coarse, gritty powder is formed. Do not over grind.

Add sugar to the milk and stir the milk as it comes to a boil. Dont let the rice grains stick to the bottom of the vessel.
Once the milk comes to a boil, lower the flame, add the rice powder, most of the chopped nuts and crushed cardamom.

Stir frequently till the milk thickens, say about 25 minutes after adding the ground rice. Halfway during the process, add the cinnamon powder.
Pour the kheer in a serving bowl, let it cool down to room temperature and then refrigerate for 4-5 hours.
In this time, the rice particles will have swollen with milk to form soft nubbins with just the right amount of bite.The final kheer/phirni will be thick (but not set like a pudding), creamy, not too-sweet and with faint echoes of cinnamon.
Serve chilled with a garnish of the remaining chopped nuts.

Note: If you have the unglazed earthenware bowls/dishes that phirni is traditionally served in, pour the phirni in these shaloow bowls and then reefrigerate. The earthenware will leach out the moisture and 'set' your phirni.

Cookery School: Mirchi Thecha

Often we have to make do with boring veggies like lauki (bottle gourd), kaddu (pumpkin), tondli ...you know, the type that have no discernible taste or texture of their own.  The wallflowers of the vegetable kingdom, shying away from the limelight occupied by the potatoes and tomatoes and cauliflower and capsicum and their like. Or we find that we are faced with a subzi we just don't like- bhindi or baingan or spinach.

In such situations, to the rescue comes this cracker of a side dish- that sets the palate humming, adds sparkle to any insipid meal, and even easily steals the limelight from popular favourite dishes like mutter paneer. What takes the cake is that it needs just 4 ingredients and 10 minutes to make!

This super recipe was taught to me by Agent J's Mom- a terrific cook with a treasure trove of recipes that I am determined to learn. So here goes:

 Ingredients:

• 10 big fat green chillies - the kind used to make mirchi pakoda
• 2-3 normal green chillies (optional, for amped-up heat)
• A head of garlic
• Oil
• Salt

Process:

• Lightly grease a griddle/tava with oil
• Place the chillies on the tava, and place that on a low flame on the gas hob.

 

• Be sure to cover the chillies with a domed cover, this will help soften the chillies as they roast, rather than letting them char

 

• While the chillies cook, peel some garlic cloves. Do not use pre-made garlic paste or pre-peeled garlic as far as possible- freshest is bestest, for maximum punch! Ratio of chillies:garlic is approximately 2:1 , but its really up to your taste.
• As soon as you hear a sizzling sound from the tava ( approximately 1-2 minutes) turn the chillies over and let them cook on the other side, under the cover.

 

• Once the chillies are softened and slightly charred, remove their stalks (and seeds if you want a milder version), chop them up and toss them in a mortar with garlic and salt. Pound everything with the pestle  - don't bother making it too fine, its meant to be slightly chunky and rustic.

 

Voila- Your magical tastebud-reviving thecha is ready, in under 10 minutes!

Tips:

• Some chillies are hotter than others, so adjust your garlic:chilli ratio accordingly, else you'll land up with an inferno on your plate!
• It's impossible to taste-test chillies beforehand.If you DO end up with too-fiery thecha, just add some oil and mix through.  It will take the edge off the heat and give a more rounded taste.  An alternative to oil  is to add a few peanuts and pound them up with the thecha to make it milder, but I personally don't like this idea- am skeptical that peanuts with their distinctive sweet nutty flavour will interfere with the BURST of chilli-garlic spikiness of the thecha.
•  The heat is at its maximum when the thecha is just-made. It slightly dampens down over a day.
• You can pre-make the thecha and use it as a cooking aid- use it to add oomph to dals or add it to plain paratha dough or thepla dough to add a bit of zing!
•  This thecha can be stored for 2-3 days in the fridge and for longer in the freezer- but seriously, the fresher, the better. So make it in small quantities and consume ASAP