Kheer is the oldest sweet most families make: milk, rice and sugar, reduced slowly until the rice is soft and the milk has thickened and turned slightly cream-coloured. It needs almost no skill and a lot of attention, which makes it a pleasant dish to make on a day that is meant to be quiet.
This page also gives a place to describe a rule that runs under every dish on this site: how water is handled in a Jain kitchen.
Serves: 4 to 5. Time: 50 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 litre full-fat milk
- 1/4 cup basmati or other aromatic rice, washed
- 1/3 cup sugar, or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
- 1 tablespoon sliced almonds and pistachios
- 1 teaspoon ghee
- A few saffron strands soaked in warm milk, optional
Method
- Soak the washed rice in a little water for 20 minutes, drain, and stir with the teaspoon of ghee so the grains stay separate.
- Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy, wide pan. Lower the heat to a steady simmer.
- Add the rice. Simmer for 30 to 35 minutes, stirring every few minutes and scraping the bottom, until the rice is soft and the milk has reduced by about a third.
- Add the sugar and cardamom and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add the saffron milk and nuts. Serve warm or chilled.
Why it follows the rules
Water is strained and boiled. In a Jain household, drinking and cooking water is strained through a thick, clean cloth, and what the cloth catches is returned to the water it came from, a practice known as jivani. For drinking, the water is boiled too, and kept only for a limited time that depends on the season. The washing water for the rice is strained in the same way.
Milk is boiled, and the pot is watched. Milk is brought to the boil before use. Watching the pot, with a lid ajar, is the same care as everywhere else in the cooking: nothing is left to burn or boil over, because wasting food is itself a harm.
No honey, no animal-derived thickener. Kheer needs neither, and a homemade pot has no hidden ingredient. A boxed or restaurant version sometimes contains gelatine or cream stabilisers, and checking that is part of eating out for a person who follows the rules.
A sweet for the daytime. A pot of kheer is put on in the afternoon and finished before sunset. If you break a fast with it, keep to the time given by your vow.
Serving
Serve in small bowls, warm in cold weather and chilled in summer. Kheer thickens as it cools, so add a splash of milk when you reheat it. It is better eaten the same day than kept.
Variations
- Vermicelli kheer: replace the rice with 1/3 cup of roasted vermicelli, simmered for 10 minutes.
- Jaggery kheer: use jaggery instead of sugar, adding it after the pot has cooled slightly so that the milk does not split.
- Dry fruit kheer: add chopped dates and figs with the rice.
Related
- Jain recipes: the rules and the dishes
- Suji sheera
- Shrikhand
- Ayambil meal
- Diwali and the nirvana of Mahavira
Frequently asked questions
↳ Why do Jains filter and boil water?
The tradition holds that unfiltered water contains tiny living beings. Straining through a cloth removes the visible ones, and boiling is a further precaution, so drinking water costs the fewest lives.
↳ How long can boiled water be kept?
The tradition counts it in hours that change with the season. The exact figures differ between communities, so follow your own sangh.
↳ Why does my kheer split?
Adding something acidic or very cold to hot milk causes it to curdle. Keep the heat low and add sweeteners like jaggery only when the milk is slightly cooled.
↳ What rice is best?
A short or aromatic rice such as basmati. Break the grains lightly before cooking if you want the kheer to turn creamier.