This Is Your Handy Guide To Make The Most Perfect Phirni Every Time, A tantalizing indian dessert

The phirni is a classic sweet pudding, made commonly in northern India, but a favourite indian dessert for all. It's creamy and dense, and coats the tongue with deep flavor. It's popular during festivals like Diwali and other auspicious occasions and also works well during family gatherings and other occasions. It's a dish that takes time to make, a return to slow cooking, making its textures and flavors stand out that much more. Here’s everything you need to know to make the most delicious cup of phirni.

Ingredients:

• 60 g basmati rice
• 1 liter whole milk or organic milk
• 120 g sugar or as required
• 12 almonds – blanched and peeled, reserve a few for garnishing
• 12 pistachios – blanched and peeled, reserve a few for garnishing
• ½ teaspoon cardamom powder or 6 to 7 green cardamoms, crushed and powdered in a mortar-pestle
• 15 saffron strands
• 2 teaspoon rose water

Directions:

In a bowl, add the rice and rinse it a few times until the water comes out clean. Then drain the water and let the rice dry by spreading it out on a large cloth. Pulse the dried rice in a grinder until it's as fine as sooji. This means it should be granular but not as fine as a powder. Or if you have the time, soak the rice for 30 minutes and then drain the water. Let it dry naturally and then grind to a semi-fine consistency. Set aside.

Take water in a bowl and heat it until it starts boiling. Add the nuts and cover the bowl. Turn off the heat and let the nuts blanch for 30 minutes. Then drain the water, peel the nuts and slice them finely, or coarsely if you want more bite-like pieces. Reserve a few of the nuts for garnish. Set aside.

In a pan, add the milk and heat on medium heat. Once it's warm, take a spoonful in a small bowl. Add the saffron strands to the small bowl with warm milk. Set aside.

Let the rest of the milk reach a boil. Then lower the heat and add the rice powder. Mix well.

Then add the sugar to the milk and mix well until the sugar is completely dissolved. Don't cover the pan, but let the milk mixture continue to cook. Keep stirring once in a while so that no lumps form.

While it's cooking, take the cardamoms in a mortar pestle. Crush until it's a fine powder. Discard the cardamom peels.

Once the ground rice is almost cooked, add the nuts, cardamom powder, and saffron-infused milk into the milk mixture. Let it continue to cook. The milk will start to thicken. You know it's cooked when the rice granules become soft and are completely cooked.

Once the phirni is ready, turn off the heat and mix in the rose water.

Spoon the phirni into small serving bowls. Garnish with the chopped nuts you set aside at the start. Cover the bowls with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate the phirni for 4 hours.

Serve chilled.

It can be stored in the fridge for 3 days or for a week in the freezer.

Notes, tips and tricks:

It's best to use basmati rice. But if you don't have that, you can also use any other nonsticky rice or any regular rice.

If you don't want to use rose water and saffron strands, you can easily replace them with other flavors. Consider cinnamon, cocoa powder, or any other flavor profile of your choice. Or if you want a stronger flavor, double the amount of saffron strands you're using.

If you don't want to use normal sugar, you can just as easily use jaggery, palm sugar or coconut sugar. You can also sprinkle a little bit on top as a garnish.

If you want to, you can blanch the nuts in a microwave. In a small microwave safe bowl, add water and drop in the nuts. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. The nuts are going to be soft and can now be peeled and sliced.

You can garnish the phirni with a variety of flavors like adding some makhanas, a few pieces of chocolate, grated lime zest, or any other creative topping of your choice.