Phirni - How to make Phirni

Phirni is a kashmiri rice dessert which is made with ground basmati rice cooked with milk, sugar and some saffron threads for flavoring. Traditionally this desert is chilled and served in earthen bowls. Though you can have this unchilled, you get the best taste only when refrigerated. When you have some unplanned guests at home you can surprise them with this new dessert. Hardly takes some 20 mins for the whole process and then the refrigerating time. Here is the recipe!

Ingredients

Basmati rice - 2 tbsp

Milk -300 ml
Sugar - 21/2 tbsp (adjust as per taste)
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Sliced almonds - 8 or 10
Crushed Pistachios, Raisins and few strands of saffron for garnish

Method

1. Soak basmati rice for 1/2 an hour in water. Drain the water, blend it to a coarse paste.
2. Soak almonds in hot water for 10 mins and peel of the skin. Slice into thin slices.
3. Boil the milk in a broad bottomed pan, preferably non-stick. Stir in-between so that the milk doesn't stick to the bottom. Adding a teaspoon of water before pouring milk to the pan will help milk not to stick to the pan.
4. Add little bit of water to the rice paste and liquify it. This way you can avoid forming lumps while adding it to the milk. Now add the rice paste and almonds to the boiling milk. Give a nice stir and cook on slow flame for 10-15 mins. You can also reserve few slices of almonds for garnishing at the end. Keep scraping the sides of the pan continuously so that the milk and rice mixture doesn't stict to the sides or bottom.
5. Now, add sugar and cardamom powder, mix well and simmer for another 5-7 minutes while continuing the scraping process. By now it could have thicken. Switch off the flame and allow it to cool. Garnish with crushed nuts and saffron.
6. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour and enjoy chilled.