(Lima) Beans and Delhi Cha(a)t

Mission Milk Rice

Hurray! The first cultural exchange via this blog happened last week. Since the Milk Rice recipe sounded so easy to make, I decided to try it out. For a food-lover who is kitchen-shy (yes, I admit), preparing any delicacy is not short of a feat. And the simple-sounding Milk Rice was no exception.

To begin with, I didn't put enough water in the pan for the rice to boil nicely. So there was a bit of delay getting the rice fully cooked. Next was emptying the condensed milk tin into the rice. Fairly simple you would say, eh? Well, you should have seen the war between the tin and self. It was a battle royale, and to my frustration, the tin can kept winning. An enormous struggle and a dozen bad words against the tin company later, I could finally extract its contents. Phew! The big part of the fight was over. Now it was just a matter of adding those cups of water to cook the rice and milk. This time, I went a little overboard. The result? Those of you who cook can well imagine--the rice took ages getting condensed like Cesar had suggested. At one point I wondered if it would thicken at all (call me stupid, I really won't mind). To my wonder and amazement, it actually did! That's when I added pistachios to it. Then, turning off the fire, I sprinkled the jewel on the crown--cinnamon powder.

I was apprehensive how it would be received by the sweet-tooth public I was going to subject with it. My first victim...er, taster was a friend who came for lunch with us. Her reaction? Delight and an immediate demand for the recipe. Voila! She made my day. More tasters followed and the reactions were equally sweet (literally). For me the biggest compliment was that the entire lot I made (and I made a LOT) was polished off by various sweet-lovers, and that I myself got to taste just a little.

Just so you know, I would like to tell you India has a number of desserts using milk and rice. The only difference is we use regular milk instead of the condensed version used in Cesar's recipe.

Payesh

is one such, famous in Bengal, my home state. Do check it out.

SWEET!

posted by Sury at 11:43 PM