By Shayantani Sinha
Published on July 1, 2014

Phirni is a wonderful, creamy dessert made with ground rice combined with milk, cream, sugar and some saffron strands for flavouring. This superb dessert also tastes great when flavoured with saffron (kesar) or rose essence. The key to a good phirni is to grind the rice well.

Preperation time: Five minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves: Three to four people

INGREDIENTS:

• A few saffron (kesar) strands
• 1 litre milk (full cream)
• 4 tbsp long grained (basmati) rice
• 6 tbsp sugar
• A few chopped almonds and strands of saffron for garnishing

DIRECTIONS

• Dry roast the saffron strands in a small pan for 10 seconds. Add 1 tbsp of milk and keep aside.
• Soak the rice in water for about 1 hour.
• Drain, wash and drain again. Pat dry on an absorbent kitchen towel and blend in a mixer to a coarse powder.
• Add ½ cup of cold milk and mix well to make a paste. Keep aside.
• Boil the rest of the milk and gently stir in the rice paste.
• Cook for about 15 minutes on a slow flame, while stirring continuously.
• Add the sugar and saffron mixture and simmer for a few minutes.
• Pour into earthenware containers and keep aside to cool.
• Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Serve chilled garnished with almonds and saffron strands.