Sweets & Desserts
Kheer (Rice Pudding)
खीर
Kheer is slow-simmered rice pudding, milk reduced patiently with rice, sugar and cardamom until it turns thick, creamy and pale gold. In Nepal it carries genuine ritual weight: it is offered as prasad at temples, cooked for birthdays and pujas, and celebrated with its own festival, Kheer Khane Din on Shrawan 15, which marks the end of the rice-planting season. Served warm in winter and chilled in summer, always with a scatter of nuts.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 55 min
- Total
- 65 min
- Serves
- 6
- Difficulty
- Easy
At the stove
Method
Warm the ghee in a heavy pan and fry the cashews and raisins for a minute until the nuts are golden and the raisins puff. Scoop them out and set aside.
Pour the milk into the same pan and bring it to a gentle boil, stirring so it does not catch on the bottom.
Drain the soaked rice and add it to the milk with the pinch of salt. Lower the heat to a bare simmer.
Cook for 40 to 50 minutes, stirring every few minutes and scraping the sides down into the pot, until the grains are completely soft and the milk has reduced by roughly half.
Crush the saffron between your fingers into a spoonful of hot milk and stir it through.
Add the sugar, cardamom and coconut and simmer another 8 to 10 minutes — the pudding will loosen at first, then thicken again.
Stir back most of the fried nuts and raisins, keeping some for the top.
Take off the heat while it is still slightly looser than you want; kheer sets noticeably as it cools. Serve warm or chilled, garnished with the reserved nuts and pistachios.
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