Annapurna: Kesar Phirni Recipe / Festive Cooking

Monday, 4 July 2016

Kesar Phirni Recipe / Festive Cooking

Ramzan Id also known as Eid-Ul-Fitr which marks the end of the holy fasting Islamic month of Ramadan is just 2 days ahead. A joyous festival to celebrate with family and friends. Many traditional dishes are prepared for the occasion. Sheer Khurma , a creamy rich dessert is generally prepared and served to all the vising guest on this day. Apart from it, one more milk pudding which perfectly suits this festive occasion is Phirni.

Phirni / Firni is a popular North Indian creamy and rich dessert. It is a milk and rice based sweet dish specially made and enjoyed on occasions like Diwali , Holi , Ramazan and is traditionally served in clay containers. Earthen containers soak the extra moisture from the pudding and make it more creamy and firm.

Phirni is extremely delicious and lip smacking Punjabi dessert with an easy recipe to follow. What i like most about this dessert is that it can be made ahead of time and one can add many flavours and variations to the basic phirni like the Mango Phirni with mango flavour, Rose , Almond , Coconut , Kesar , Srawberry and many more . Today i am going to share my Mum's recipe of delicious Kesar Phirni.

As the name suggest, this phirni gets a beautiful color and flavor from Saffron. Usually, the recipe for any phirni calls for soaking and grinding of the rice paste and then adding it to the boiling milk. By this method, there are chances of lump formation of rice in the milk. To avoid this, in this method, the milk is first boiled and cooled down. The rice paste is added to the cold milk, mixed properly to ensure there are no lumps and then placed on the gas top and cooked further. Also the almonds are soaked with the rice and ground to a paste with the rice. This gives a nice creamy texture to the Phirni.

Ingredients: 1 cup = 250 ml

2 cups Full Cream Milk ( ½ liter)
¼ cup Sugar or as required
2 tbsp. Basmati Rice
6-8 Almonds
Few Strands of Saffron
Few Pistachios
¼ tsp Cardamom powder

Method:

Rinse and soak the Basmati rice in water along with the Almonds for 1-2 hrs.

2. Meanwhile boil milk and simmer it for 8-10 minutes. Take 2 tbsp milk from it in a small bowl and soak the saffron strands in it. Let rest of the milk cool down at room temperature and keep covered until use.

3. Peel the Almonds. Transfer them along with the soaked rice and little water or milk to a mixer jar and grind to a coarse paste.

4. To a heavy bottom pan or a nonstick pan , add the milk and rice paste and mix very well , ensuring there are no lumps. Now heat this pan on medium flame and allow the rice to cook for about 10 -12 minutes. Keep stirring in between , so that the pudding do not stick to the bottom.

5. Now add sugar and saffron soaked milk and stir well. Cook the phirni until the sugar dissolves completely. Do not cook until the mixture is too thick , as the phirni will thicken further on cooling. In the last add the cardamom powder , give a quick stir and put off the flame

6. Spoon the Keasr Phirni into individual earthen bowls , garnish it with chopped pistachios and saffron . When the pudding cools down to room temperature, cover it with a cling film and refrigerate at least for an hour before serving.