A famous Indian dessert recipe - "Phirni (Rice Custard)"

 

Hello readers,

      Today  I came to share with you a dessert recipe which is famous not only in India but all over the world "Phirni". Despite the dearth of evidence, it is believed that 'phirni' hailed from ancient 'Persia' or ' Middle East' and it's the 'Mughals' who both invented and introduced it to India. It was found that in Persia where phirni is believed to have originated used the creamy rice pudding as the food of "Angels" and was known as " Sheer Birinj". It was first offered to"Prophet Muhammad" when he soared to 7th floor of heaven to meet GOD.

     Phirni has many version. In Iran, the rich indulgence is known as 'Fereni' while Egypt and Turkey the sinful delicacy is called 'Muhallabia'. In Europe, the rice pudding was first introduced by the Romans as early as 17th century, who mainly used it to cure stomach ailments and digestion issues. In China the delicacy was called " The Chinese Eight Jewel Rice Pudding" as it was made with eight different kind of exotic fruits and honey. Hope you like the story behind this dish! So let's start making "Phirni".

Ingredients:-

1. Full cream Milk- 500ml.

2. Basmati Rice- 3 tbsp.

3. Green cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp.

4. Sugar- 1cup.

5. Pistachios- 15-20.

6. Almond- 2 tbsp.( Thinly sliced).

Preparation Method:-

Step 1- First take Basmati Rice in a bowl  rinse well and soak the rice in 1 cup of water for 1 hour.

Step 2-  After 1 hour drain water from soaked rice, now add them to the mixer  grinder and grind coarsely by adding little milk into it, the texture should be of fine grains and shouldn't become a paste.

Step 3- Now take a heavy bottomed pan pour milk into the pan and start boiling,once milk will start boiling add cardamom powder into the milk. Add sugar and coarsely pasted rice into it, stir continuously make sure there shouldn't be any lumps. Have to stir continuously at least for 25 minutes or until the rice gets cooked and mixture turns slightly thick.

Step 4- Now add Pistachios and stir continuously for another 5 minutes, turn off the flame and let phirni come to the room temperature.

Step 5- Once phirni will come to the room temperature pour the creamy phirni in the earthen pots, top with sliced almonds and keep the pots in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

Step 6- Now serve creamy phirni as a dessert.

image credit: source1, source2