Indian Rice Kheer - Instant Pot / Cooker / Stovetop version
This Indian Rice Kheer is a classic Indian Rice pudding made with milk, rice and condensed milk and flavored with cardamom, and fried nuts. This creamy pudding is one of the most popular Indian desserts.
Rinse and wash the rice twice to remove any dirt or impurities. Soak the rice in fresh water for 15-30 mins. Drain the water and set aside.
Put your Instant Pot on Saute Mode. Add the ghee to it.
Once the display reads HOT add in the cashew-nuts and fry till golden brown. Take it out onto a plate once done.
To the leftover ghee, add the drained rice and saute for 1-2 min followed by the addition of milk. Stir the milk once.
Close the lid. Vent to sealing position. Choose the porridge mode. Let it auto-cook for 20 mins.
Allow to depressurise naturally and then open the lid.
Give the milk and rice mixture a stir. Do not stir it vigorously or else you might accidentally scrape any milk sticking at the base of the pot.
Add in the condensed milk, mix it through. In goes the cardamom powder and fried cashew nuts and mix that too.
Serve it warm in a bowl garnished with some nuts and saffron strands or chilled alongside jelly.
How to make Jelly Layer
Follow the packet instructions to make the jelly. Pour it to your glasses at an angle (as shown in pictures in the above paragraphs).
Allow it to come to room temperature and then chill it in the fridge until set.
Once set add the chilled kheer to the other half portion. And serve them garnished with nuts of choice.
Stove-top version:
Rinse and soak the rice for 15-30 mins.
In a heavy bottom pan, add the ghee and allow it to heat up then add the cashew nuts and fry till golden brown and take it out.
To the same pan add rice and saute for a minute. Add the milk and bring it to boil. Lower the temperature and keep stirring until the milk is reduced to half and the rice is cooked too.
Add in the condensed milk and mix that through.
After another 10 mins or so add cardamom powder and fried cashew nuts.
Combine everything well and your kheer is ready.
Pressure Cooker Kheer:
Follow the rinsing and soaking as well as frying the cashew nuts step as mentioned above.
Then add rice to the cooker and saute it followed by the addition of milk.
Simply put a stainless steel plate or a spoon inside. Close the lid and on medium low flame let it cook for till you get one whistle or 35 to 45 mins max.
Allow the pressure to release naturally and then open the cooker.
Add in the condensed milk, cardamom powder and the nuts and mix well.
Video
Notes
The preparation time mentioned above includes the soaking time of the rice. However, the cooking time mentioned above does not includes the time the instant pot takes to come into pressure and depressure once cooked.
Also, I have mentioned the time required to cook the stove-top and pressure cooker kheer separately in the instructions so please take that as a guide.
Soaking the rice in water beforehand helps to cook it faster.
Frying the cashew-nuts in ghee adds a beautiful flavour to the dish.
If making it on your stove-top make sure to stir the kheer continuously.
Substitutions:
Milk: I recommend using full-fat dairy milk for this recipe. You can substitute with low-fat milk but the kheer won't be as creamy as with the full-fat ones.
Rice: I prefer using Basmati Rice but any sticky rice would work. My mom uses Sona Masoori short-grain rice. Even brown rice would work.
Condensed Milk: You can substitute with sugar, jaggery, brown sugar or any other sweetener of your choice.
Flavour: Traditionally Kheer is flavoured with cardamom powder, rose water or saffron strands. Other than that you could also use cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder or a combination of different spices.
Nuts: In place of cashew nuts one can also use pistachios or almonds. Or completely skip the nuts to make it nut-free.
How to make Vegan Rice Kheer:
Substitute dairy-based milk with any non-dairy ones like coconut or almond. And condensed milk with sugar.
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