Rice Pudding (East Indian Chaler Payesh)
This 'Chaler Payesh' is nothing but our Indian style rice pudding or 'rice kheer' made by boiling thick milk with aromatic rice (Gobindo Bhog) and sugar slow cooked with aromatic cardamoms and bay leaf and generous amounts of chopped nuts (cashews, almonds and pistachio) and raisins. It's a very tasty, simple to make and flavourful Bengali dessert. This traditional Bengali dessert is prepared in all Bengali homes for most of their festivals like Durga Puja, Lakshmi Puja, Saraswati Puja etc. This dessert ought to be made with precision, timing and patience. And if you don't get it exact, the imbalance in consistency and sweetness will be very obvious.
whole milk (1.5 L)
½ cup gobindo bhog rice
¼ cup cashew, almond and pistachio nuts, chopped
handful raisins
2 green cardamom
2-3 bay leaves
1 Tbsp. ghee or clarified butter
1½ cups sugar
Wash the rice, drain the water and keep aside.
Pour milk in a boiling pan, usually a deep heavy bottomed pan.
Add 2 or 3 green cardamom and bay leaves.
In another pan add ghee and lightly fry the rice.
When the Milk come to a boil add the rice. Be careful so that milk does not boil over. Stir continuously.
Stir intermittently and check if the rice is done. You kind of have to keep stirring frequently else the milk might scald the bottom of the pan as it thickens.
When the rice is cooked add sugar. Adding sugar before the rice has boiled hinders it getting cooked properly.
Now stir the milk continuously so that the milk does not burn or scald the bottom of the container and the rice does not stick.
When the Milk has thickened to the right consistency add raisins.
To check that milk has thickened to the right consistency. Take the 'Payesh' off heat and add chopped cashew nuts.
Serve in room temperature.
Makes 6 servings.
Cook's Notes:
- When the rice is cooked add sugar. Adding sugar before the rice has boiled hinders it getting cooked properly.
- You can also leave out the ghee, but that does not allow the rice to stick to each other.