Kesar badam kheer/ Indian rice pudding
Creamy Indian rice pudding flavored with saffron and almond is an absolute delight!
Equipment
- Blender if using whole almonds
- Heavy bottomed pot
Ingredients
- 4 cups Full fat Whole milk
- ¼ cup Jasmine rice or any rice with a nice aroma like basmati
- 6 tbsp Sugar adjust according to your taste
- 6-10 strands Saffron
- 2-3 pods Cardamom crushed
- 2 tbsp Choice of roasted nuts optional
For almond paste
- ¼ cup Almond flour or soaked almonds a little less than ¼ cup
- ¼ cup milk
Instructions
- Soak saffron strands in a tablespoon of milk.
- If using soaked whole almonds, blend the almonds in ¼ cup of milk. If using almond flour, mix the flour and milk together.
- Wash the rice a few times.
- In a heavy bottomed pot, pour in the milk. Add the rice and saffron milk. Turn on the heat.NOTE: Remember to use 4 cups milk for 1/4 cup rice.
- Keep stirring the pot so that rice and milk do not stick to the bottom and burn. Stirring also prevents the cream layer from forming on top of milk.
- When the milk comes to a boil, turn down the heat to a simmer so that milk does not boil over.
- Now add the paste made using almond flour/almonds.
- Keep simmering, stirring often until rice is cooked and soft.
- Check for doneness of rice and add sugar only after the rice is cooked.
- Keep stirring until milk is reduced to almost half of what you started with. At this point, you can see creamy bubbles form while the kheer is simmering.
- Turn off the heat and add the cardamom powder and roasted nuts. Adding roasted nuts is optional as we have already added almond paste into the kheer.
- To make the kheer extra creamy, stir it often until it cools down, to prevent the cream layer from forming on top.
- I like to serve kheer at room temperature or chilled. Tastes better the next day!
Notes
- Kheer can be made without almonds/almond flour. Simply leave it out and the kheer will still taste good!
- Use a heavy bottomed pot to prevent milk from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Try not to let the cream form on the milk, if cream does not form, the fat remains in the kheer making it very creamy. So stir the pot often.
- Stir often to prevent milk from burning.
- Stir the kheer even after turning off the heat to prevent the cream layer from forming.
- This kheer tastes better at room temperature, even better, chilled the next day.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator.
- It does take some babysitting and time to make kheer this traditional way, but it is SO worth it!