Saffron and cardamom phirni
A creamy, delicious rice pudding from the Mughlai cuisine. The perfect treat after a lavish dinner or to celebrate a happy occasion
Equipment
- Sauce pan
Ingredients
- 1.2 l whole milk full fat milk
- 75 g Basmati rice washed and soaked in water for 15-20 minutes
- 60 g sugar or to taste
- 1 tsp saffron strands
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
For garnishing
- 3 tbsp assorted nuts finely chopped
- 2 tbsp rose petals
- saffron strands optional
Instructions
- Drain the rice and spread it out on a dish cloth and leave it to air dry (mine took almost 4 hours). When completely dry, put it in a mixer jar and pulse it 2-3 times until you get a coarse powder
- In the sauce pan (at this point the heat is switched off) mix together the ground rice, milk and sugar. Now set it on your stove top and cook over medium heat
- When it comes to a boil, reduce the flame, stir through and keep cooking. After the first boil, add the saffron strands
- Keep stirring (so that it doesn't stick to the bottom) and cook the milk and rice mixture until it reduces to half it's initial quantity. When done add the cardamom powder, mix in and turn off the heat
- Pour into your shikoras (earthenware bowls) or glass bowls and let the phirni cool down to room temperature
- Then place a small sheet of cling wrap over each bowl and let it set and chill in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 4-5 hours
- Garnish with the nuts, rose petals and saffron strands and serve your creamy and delicious saffron and cardamom phirni chilled. Enjoy!
Notes
- Make sure that the saucepan you use is thick bottomed. This will prevent the milk and rice mixture that sticks to bottom, from burning
- Make sure to mix the milk, ground rice and sugar in the saucepan without putting the heat on (step 2). When evenly mixed, turn the heat on. This ensures no lumps of the rice in the pudding
- Do not grind the rice too fine or too coarse. Too fine will not give any texture to the phirni and too coarse isn't desirable
- The cling film in step 6 ensures that the phirni doesn't catch any other smell when in the refrigerator
- If you'd like this pudding to be sweeter, increase the quantity of the sugar to be added
- l - litres
- g - grams
- tsp - teaspoon
- tbsp - tablespoon