In a nutshell, Kheer is a Pakistani/Indian rice pudding. But let’s please ease out of this nutshell because it’s suffocating and unjust. Kheer is not just any rice pudding in which you quickly cook rice in sweet milk and sweep the sweat from your forehead and pitch your spatula in the air in hurrah. No. That’s not kheer. Neither is the liquidy stuff you get at Pakistani/Indian restaurants in the states. I’ll take a glass of sweet lassi instead thanks.
Kheer is slow cooked for a couple of hours in sweetened milk. It’s infused with cardamom. It’s stirred with care. You bet it’s a labor of love when you have to scrub the brown bits stuck to the bottom of your stainless steel pot later because the milk will catch at the bottom. I think I scrubbed 20 minutes of my life away just now. But man oh man, when you tear through the skin that coagulates on the surface of the Kheer and slip that spoon in your mouth, you would want to clean that pan every day. Ok, maybe not. Once a week?
Kheer is the one dessert that I ABSOLUTELY cannot resist especially when its encased between two tiny terracotta bowls glued together with a rubber band with a small wooden popsicle stick clasped to it. When I get those bowls from Burns Road in Karachi, you better believe that I take my Kheer very seriously! To replicate that earthen feel, I bought similar looking terracotta bowls from Home Depot. Instantly the Kheer that just tasted excellent now has substance– a story to tell, a culture to give you a glimpse of. And might I add how ridiculously impressive it looks. Please Google images of Kheer and tell me that this doesn’t splatter all over them. Exactly:)
Kheer (Pakistani Rice Pudding)
Cook time
Total time
A Pakistani rice pudding, Kheer is infused with cardamom and slow cooked for a couple of hours. End result is nothing short of magical!
Author: Rookie With A Cookie
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Pakistani
Serves: 4-5
Ingredients
- 4½ cup whole milk
- ¼ cup uncooked rice
- 7 tbsp sugar
- 4-5 cardamom pods
- Crushed nuts to garnish (pistachio, cashews, blanched almonds)
Instructions
- First, we are going to OVER cook the rice in boiling water for 10-12 minutes, until they get really soft and mushy.
- Next, strain the rice and with the back of a fork, mash it well until it resembles oatmeal.
- Next, heat up milk in a stainless steel deep saucepan and let it come to a gentle simmer.
- Open the cardamom pods and add it to the milk. (Once Kheer is done, you can simply take out the husk since we're only using 5 pods.)
- Next add the rice and sugar. The rice will be clumpy but as it cooks, it will break down.
- Now on very low heat, cook the Kheer for 3 hours. Make sure you stir every once in a while. The milk will inevitably catch at the bottom so make sure you use a stainless steel pot because if you use a non stick saucepan, the brown bits will peel off as you stir and distribute throughout the Kheer. That would be gross!
- After 3 hours of slow cooking, the Kheer will have thickened. It should fall in little clumps from the spatula (see the video for clarity).
- Immediately pour in terracotta bowls and garnish with crushed nuts. The skin that forms on the surface is the BEST part!
- Let Kheer cool in serving dish for 15-20 minutes before serving.
- You can keep this in the fridge covered for up to 3 days but who's even saving for later.