JFI # 5 - MILK

Milk... Milk.... memories of a childhood spent avoiding drinking it! My Mom must have tried every trick in the book to make me drink milk, syrups, Bournvita, Complan.... NAH! nothin' worked! All she had to do is turn her back and quick as lightining... It's gone (not down my hatch)!!
.... So when Vineela announced 'MILK ' as the ingredient of the month all these memories came swarming back... the time when we (me and my cousins) were at a creche and our glasses of milk would be given at 4 pm, I'd quietly pass on my glass to my cuz (who loooooved milk) and then pretend to lick my lips :)

But over the years I have learned to like it.. in the form of sweets, Bengali sweets, Maharashtrian sweets, SouthIndian sweets...

So many options of using milk, in it's natural form, cream, yogurt, khoya, paneer...

Then I travelled back in time when for the first time I had eaten Ksheera Anna, or simply put a rice pudding.. so simple and SO VERY tasty, this was at a friends house when they had some pooja (heck, I don't remember the pooja, but the food was finger lickin' good!)

This is so easy to make and does not take time too!

All you need is,

1 cup Basmati rice

2 1/2 cups Milk

1 cup sugar

1/4 spn. Cardamom powder

A few strands saffron (optional*)

Cahews / pistachios / raisins/ almonds to garnish

1 tsp ghee (to fry the rice)

Wash the rice and drain all the water. In a pan, heat the ghee, add rice and mix well so that the rice has a thin coating of ghee. Pressure cook rice and milk for upto 3 whistles. remove from the cooker, if it is too thick / dry add some more milk, mix well, add sugar and cook for a few minutes. Crush the saffron strands in a bit of milk and add to rice. Add cardamaom powder. Add the nuts (leave some to garnish).

* The aroma of Basmati rice well cooked in the milk is so good that I decided not to add saffron. It is ofcourse a matter of choice.