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.