Road to a Bachelor's Kitchen : #CookForACause - Kesari Kheer

There comes a time in a budding cook’s life when he starts getting bored of the usual stuff and looks forward to try something different; the ultimate test of cooking skills. But wait a second, the day has to be equivalently special in proportion to the “out of the world!” dish. So was one of the special days waiting for me? Oh yes it was! I called it a day to #CookForACause. An initiative to arrange a lavish lunch for the office hospitality staff, a fundraiser in the form of #CookForACause was organised from 14-18^th Feb 2016, wherein various cooks got a chance to sell their cuisines to others who don’t cook but only eat and the money hence collected would serve the main purpose. Well I had to take the main role here (for no reason) and I shouted out loud, “Boss!! I will get Kesari Kheer” (And the conscience speaks, “Dude do you even know how to cook Kheer? And where on earth will you get Kesar!”)

Well let’s keep the struggle behind realisations aside and concentrate on the main topic, “How to cook Kesari Kheer (Rice Kheer)?” The things that are needed to make the dish look like a kheer are as follows:

Please use this as a reference when I say, " A bowl "

1.       3 litres of milk (Enough servings for 4-5 people provided they want to eat one more bowl)

2.       A bowl of rice

3.       1.5 bowls of sugar

4.       Lots of raisins (kishmish) + lots of cashew nuts (Kaju) + Crushed 1-2 cardamom seeds (Elaichi)

5.       A few Kesar strands (Try to be economic here please)

Now the process to cook Kheer is very easy so something else has to be difficult isn’t it? Well its patience which is the most important ingredient to this recipe. So let’s begin the war!!

Add water to a bowl of rice and keep them soaked for about 45-60 minutes. Meanwhile soak some raisins in water for the same amount of time. Besides this take out a bowl of milk and add some kesar strands to it. Also do not forget to crush the cardamom seeds. Get all things ready because after sometime it will be only stirring that you will be permitted to do. Now add 3 litres of milk to a vessel and heat it on medium flame. Stain the water off from rice and crush them a bit before adding to the milk. This will provide an extra thickness to the dish. And there goes rice into the milk. Keep on stirring the mixture or else milk is known to stick around the vessel walls. In some 15-20 minutes, we will find that the rice is cooked properly in milk and yeah the aroma is too good.

Well then it’s time to add sugar (as per the above mentioned quantity) to the mixture and Oh boy!!! Now you can’t just stop stirring because sugar is one piece of pain. For the next 20-30 minutes our job is to only stir the mixture well. Now we will add all the raisins and cashew nuts to the mixture and continue stirring for next 20 mins. In some time we will find that the mixture is getting a bit thickened and its colour turning to fade yellow. This is when we will have to add milk-soaked kesar strands; the view is awestrucking! We shall end the hour long effort with few sprinkles of the crushed cardamom seeds.

Season the dish with crushed cashew nuts and more raisins!!

Please note that I have shared this success story after 1 failed and 1 ok-ok attempt. May the force be with you!!