I made chal er payesh in Bengali style which in Hindi you call kheer but without the coconut bits and the closest in English would be rice pudding. For Bengalis this is a very auspicious sweet dish. Traditionally it is a must for birthdays. You can say it plays the role of a cake in our culture. So a house celebrating a birthday will at the very least have this payesh. This is also part of the aiburobhaat or the last bachelor meal of both the bride and the groom and many other occasions. This competes with the misti doi in importance!
This was the first time I made this so a call to my mother to note down the recipe. Below is my mother's simple recipe.
First you need to boil and reduce two litres of milk to about one. You have to continuously stir otherwise the milk may come to a boil and fall off the pan. Add three/four crushed choti elaichi/cardamom into the milk, this will give out a nice smell. Separately soak half a cup or four/five table spoons of rice in water for half an hour. Wash the rice throughly and when the milk is thick add the rice while stirring continuously. The rice will take about 10 to 15 minutes to cook. Once the rice cooks add three/four table spoons of sugar, if you want to make it rich you can also add half a tin of condensed milk. Voila your payesh is ready.
Pour it in a serving dish and sprinkle some raisins and nuts. I sprinkled slivers of almond, my mother usually gives broken cashew nuts. You can either serve it hot or cool it before serving. I love it both hot and cold.
Tip: Sugar/condensed milk has to be added at the very end otherwise the rice will not cook. Also add the sugar according to your taste. If you are adding condensed milk, then you may not want to add a lot of sugar. Unlike salt taste of sugar fades when it cools down so if your payesh does not taste sweet keep adding sugar.
First you need to boil and reduce two litres of milk to about one. You have to continuously stir otherwise the milk may come to a boil and fall off the pan. Add three/four crushed choti elaichi/cardamom into the milk, this will give out a nice smell. Separately soak half a cup or four/five table spoons of rice in water for half an hour. Wash the rice throughly and when the milk is thick add the rice while stirring continuously. The rice will take about 10 to 15 minutes to cook. Once the rice cooks add three/four table spoons of sugar, if you want to make it rich you can also add half a tin of condensed milk. Voila your payesh is ready.
Pour it in a serving dish and sprinkle some raisins and nuts. I sprinkled slivers of almond, my mother usually gives broken cashew nuts. You can either serve it hot or cool it before serving. I love it both hot and cold.
Tip: Sugar/condensed milk has to be added at the very end otherwise the rice will not cook. Also add the sugar according to your taste. If you are adding condensed milk, then you may not want to add a lot of sugar. Unlike salt taste of sugar fades when it cools down so if your payesh does not taste sweet keep adding sugar.
yes this is really easy....so go on try it and let me know how it went....good to have you back here hamid :)
ReplyDeleteLooks incredible and super tempting..
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