One of my personal goals when I started this blog was to learn how to cook the food I grew up with, the dishes that I ask my mom to make time and again. I started with Masoor dal, then chicken curry and then … well, the train stopped there. It’s not that I didn’t go home, or that I didn’t cook when I went home, but somehow I just never cooked Indian food. (My mom and dad do plenty of that, hence why my clothes are just a wee bit tighter every time I take the bus back to the city.)
But I had been craving rice pudding something fierce recently. Or when I say rice pudding, I really mean kheer* with orzo, a very non-traditional Indian form of rice pudding, which I’m pretty sure my mom just made up. She swaps toasted orzo pasta for rice, and to further remove it from its old-school roots, my mom makes it almost entirely in the microwave.
Kheer is a sweet eaten across India, though its specifics vary from region to region. It is usually made with rice, semolina or vermicelli, and then flavored with either cardamom, saffron, pistachios, raisins, almonds, cashews or any combination of the sort. My mom makes a few different versions, but orzo kheer is definitely my favorite and I have very specific requirements for it: there must be a ton of orzo, the pasta must be toasted until it’s a caramel brown and the milk must reduce enough to form a very thick pudding. It’s creamy, slightly sweet and nutty from the browned butter. The orzo adds a nice texture — it’s a little bit chewy, but still soft enough to eat if you were, you know, recovering from wisdom teeth surgery (not that I forced my mom to make this when I got my wisdom teeth pulled. I would never do that).
The microwave technique for making kheer is used by both my mom and my aunt, though not anyone else I know. Traditionally, kheer (like many rice puddings) is made on the stove, and one must stir, stir, stir for the hour or so that it takes to make, to ensure that the rice and milk don’t burn. The microwave allows for gradual heating without having to stand at the stove, and while my grandmother considers it blasphemous, it’s the only way my mom had made kheer for as long as I can remember.
The end result came out pretty perfect — almost exactly like how my mom makes it. Best of all, it got her stamp of approval!
*Kheer is the Hindi word, in Bengali it’s payesh. It is an important part of many Hindu religious ceremonies, and apparently originated over 2,000 years ago at the famous Jagganath Temple in Puri, India (thank you Wikipedia). I visited that temple during my most recent trip to India, but sadly, no one told me to try the kheer.
Kheer with Orzo (Indian ‘Rice’ Pudding)
Recipe from Mallika
– 1/2 gallon whole milk
– 1 cup sugar
– 1-1/4 cups orzo
– 1 tablespoon butter
– 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1) Pour 5 cups of the milk into a very large microwaveable bowl. Place in the microwave and heat for 10 minutes on high power.
2) While the milk is heating, melt the butter in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the orzo and toast on medium-high heat, stirring frequently to make sure that the pasta doesn’t burn. When the orzo is a caramel-colored brown (it should smell nutty and divine), remove from the heat.
3) Once the milk is finished microwaving, stir it well, breaking the skin that has formed at the top and incorporating it back into the bowl. Return to the microwave to heat another 10 minutes.
4) Stir in the orzo with two more cups of milk and heat again for 5 minutes. The milk should begin to thicken and bubble, so make sure that it’s not boiling over while heating.
5) Stir the kheer, making sure to break up any clumps of orzo (press the clumps with a back of a wooden spoon onto the bowl). Heat again for another 5 minutes, then stir again and return to the microwave for another 5 minutes.
6) Add the sugar and the last cup of milk and stir well. Lower the power to half and microwave for another 20-30 minutes, depending on how thick you would like your pudding.* Check every 10 minutes, stirring to evenly distribute the the orzo.
7) Once the kheer is the consistency you desire, stir in the cardamom. Serve warm, though it’s equally delicious cold.
*There’s no “right” consistency for kheer. Anything approaching the consistency of rice pudding works, though I like mine thick. The pudding will thicken further as it cools.
Note: If you don’t own a microwave, you can make this on the stove in a large saucepan. Start with the milk on medium-high heat and then reduce to medium-low after adding the sugar. The downside is that you’ll have to stand at the stove and stir constantly as it cooks so that the bottom doesn’t burn.
I will try it, but I can’t promise anything. I had pretty traumatic experiences with kheer as a child. According to my mom, it was “compulsory.”
it looks so yummy! your photos have gotten so good. i think that’s a bad thing tho, cause i always look at them when i’m procrastinating and then have to eat greasy campus food instead 🙁