Slow-reduced milk thickened with little millet rava, sweetened with jaggery off the flame, and finished with saffron and slivered almonds.
Ingredients
From the TrooFoodz pantry
Fresh
- Full-fat milk 1 litre
- Jaggery, grated 150 g
- Ghee 1 tbsp
- Cardamom pods, crushed 4
- Almonds, slivered 3 tbsp
- Saffron a good pinch
Method
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Roast the rava
Stir Sprouted Little Millet Rava in the ghee over low heat for three minutes, just until fragrant. Roasting keeps the grains separate in the milk rather than dissolving into paste.
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Reduce the milk
Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy pan, then drop to a simmer and cook fifteen minutes, scraping the skin from the sides back into the pot as it forms.
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Cook the grain
Rain the roasted rava into the simmering milk while whisking, then cook fifteen minutes more, stirring often so it does not catch, until each grain is soft.
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Pull off heat
Pull the pan off the flame completely and let it stand five minutes. Do not skip this — hot milk plus jaggery is the standard way to end up with a curdled kheer.
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Stir in the jaggery
Add the grated jaggery to the cooled kheer and stir until it dissolves. The acids in jaggery break milk proteins on contact with high heat; off the flame they simply sweeten it.
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Bloom the saffron
Rub the saffron into a tablespoon of warm milk until it stains deep orange, then stir it in with the crushed cardamom.
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Rest and loosen
Scatter the almonds and rest ten minutes. Kheer thickens as it sits, so loosen with a little warm milk before serving.
Why this works
Reducing the milk before the grain goes in concentrates its sugars and gives the kheer body without cream. Little millet rava swells fast and is easy to overcook into porridge, so it goes in late. Adding jaggery only off the heat is the single technique that separates a smooth kheer from a split one.
Make it your own
- Full-fat milk → Coconut milk Vegan and sweeter; add the jaggery off the heat all the same.
- Jaggery → Palm jaggery Darker colour and a smokier finish.
- Almonds → Fried cashews Richer, softer, more traditional.
