Phirni

We did a lot of payasams during August. So for my son's birthday I wanted to do something different yet easy. Especially after the spiderman cake I did for A~'s school, I wanted something easy and quick. Added to that, V~ who is six months old has wheat allergy. So, I cannot have wheat based dishes until I stop nursing. The dish had to be non-wheat based, easy and quick. That is how I decided on Phirni.

Phirni is a specialty dish from the state of Jammu and Kashmir. I have done this a really long time back. But my son has never had it. So I did not know if he would like it or not. He generally does not like anything sticky or liquid. I knew he would like it if he tried but they he has to right? Anyway, I went ahead and made it. As expected he said he did not want it, the moment he saw a mushy dish. But after some cajoling and bribing, we got him to eat one spoon and he said it was good and finished of the phirni I had got for him. The rest of the folks at home like it as well.

Ingredients

Milk - 3 cups (I used whole milk)
Raw rice - 4-5 TBSP
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Saffron - 3-4 strands
Cardomon - 3-4 powdered
Almonds - ground coarsely for garnishing

Method

* Soak raw rice in water for 1 hour
* Grind it into a smooth paste
* Boil milk and once it starts to boil, add the rice paste and stir well. Keep stirring to avoid forming lumps.
* Cook until the rice is cooked completely.
* Add sugar, saffron, cardomom and cook for somemore time. The milk should reduce to half and the phirni should thicken.
* Transfer to the serving bowl and garnish with almonds.
* Let it sit in the refrigerator and serve it chilled. Or if you are like me and cannot wait, eat it immediately

Notes
This is a basic phirni. You can do your own variations by adding mango(mango phirni), gulkandh(gulabi phirni), almond paste (almond phirni)
Add the almonds, the portion of phirni I had along with the almonds tasted yum. Did you notice the nuts on the right side have vanished? How long can I keep taking pictures without eating??? It was hard to resist
Though I have not tried it myself, I think this dish would come out well in a microwave as well.

Sending this to Diwali sweets and savories hosted at Tickling Palettes