Sheer Khurma Recipe / Festive Cooking / Happy Ramadan 2015

Sheer Khurma

While one of the most celebrated and joyous festival of Islamic Calendar-The Eid-ul-Fitr / Eid is just days away,I take the opportunity to wish everyone Ramadan Mubarak! Generally any festive wishes are accompanied with a sweet dish which is associated with that festival. Eid - Ul - Fitr  is a festival celebrated at the end of Ramadan / Ramzan - The most sacred month for the Muslim community during which fasting is observed. Apart from gifts and Eidi , Sheer Khurma is another speciality of Eid -ul - Fitr. It is believed that the real essence of Eid can't be imagined without having lots of scrumptious Sheer Khurma.

Sheer Khurma is a traditional Mughlai dessert . It is basically a festive Vermicelli Pudding and it literally means "Milk with Dates" in Urdu , the meaning of Sheer is milk and Khurma is dates. The dish is served on the morning of Eid day in the family as breakfast after the Eid prayer and to all the visiting guest through out the day .

Sheer Khurma is creamy, rich and flavorful dessert dish loaded with good amount of dry fruits like Pistachios, Cashew nuts, Chironji , Raisins and Almonds. It is a mouth watering delicacy in which very fine variety of vermicelli is cooked in a sweetened condensed milk with dates and dry fruits. Apart from cooking this pudding during festivals, one can have this dessert during winter seasons to provide warmth to the body .

There are various methods of cooking this festive dish and one can find many recipes on net for this delicious dessert and we can modify the recipe and bring our own variations . I have used the roasted fine vermicelli in this recipe , have chopped the dates, roasted them in ghee and added to the milk. The milk is then simmered and allowed to reduce to half the quantity, to which the roasted vermicelli and dry fruits added and further cooked. Rose water and Cardamon powder impart rich aroma to the pudding and the nuts give the required crunch and nutty flavors. I did not get Chironji here in Penang , so added almonds in the recipe apart from Pistachio, Raisins and Cashew Nuts. The dates I used were very sweet so just added 1 tbsp sugar to the pudding. (You can use powdered dried dates ( called chuara in Hindi and Kharik in Marathi) instead and if using the plain vermicelli, roast it in little ghee before adding to the reduced milk.)

Ingredients:

• Full Cream Milk - 3 cups
• Fine Vermicelli - 1/4 cup
• Ghee- 1 tbsp
• Dates- 10-12
• Dry Fruits- 1/2 cup ( Cashew Nuts, Raisins, Pistachios, Almonds, Chironji)
• Sugar - 1 Tbsp
• Rose water - 1 Tbsp
• Cardamon Powder- 1/4 tsp

    Method:

1. Boil the milk in a thick bottom vessel or sauce pan.  De seed the dates and chop them finely. Now roast them using little ghee and add to the milk. 

   2. Cook the milk along with the dates until it reduces to half its quantity. 

   3. Chop the dry fruits roughly and roast them in the same pan in which we roasted the dates. Remove them and keep aside.

    4. Now roast the vermicelli on very low flame. The vermicelli should get even golden brown color. Take care not to burn it. 

   5. Add the roasted Vermicelli, Dry fruits and Rose water to the milk with dates. Stir well and let it cook for 2-3 minutes. 

   6. Once the Vermicelli softens add the sugar and give a quick stir, put off the flame after 1 minute or so and then add the Cardamon powder. The Sheer Khurma further thickens on cooling , so adjust the time accordingly.

    7.   Serve hot or chilled in individual bowls and enjoy the divine test ! 

Eid Mubarak in advance !