Coconut and Rice Kheer – Thengai Arisi Payasam

Kheer or Payasam is an Indian dessert made for festivals and special occasions. Coconut and Rice kheer is popular in South India and I love this kheer just for the combination of rice and coconut cooked in milk. To sweeten this dish, we can add either sugar or jaggery. I prefer sugar to jaggery for this payasam. Finally enhanced with the flavor of cardamom and fried cashew nut. It is a bit time consuming but very simple procedure. Try this and let me know how it turns out.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 2 hours

No. of servings: 6 t0 7

Ingredients:

• Basmati rice – 4 tbsp
• Shredded coconut – 1/2 cup
• Milk – 8 cups
• Sugar – 3/4 cup
• Cardamom pods – 4
• Broken cashew nut – 2 tbsp
• Ghee (clarified butter) – 1 tsp

Method of Preparation:

1. Soak basmati rice for 30 minutes.
2. Heat milk in a heavy bottomed pan or pot and bring it to a boil over medium heat.
3. Lower the heat and allow it boil. Since I used skim milk (fat free milk) I let it reduce to almost half the quantity (from 8 cups to 5 cups), frequently stirring in between. This may take an hour or little more than that.
4. If you are using full fat milk or 2% milk you can let it reduce to 3/4th of its quantity since we do not want the consistency to be too thick.
5. Grind coconut and rice with a little water to a coarse paste.
6. When milk is reduced to the required amount, add rice coconut paste and let it cook.
7. When rice is fully cooked add sugar and let it cook for 5 to 10 minutes.
8. I like my payasam not too thick. So you can turn off the stove when a desired consistency is obtained.
9. Heat  a tsp of ghee in a small pan and add broken cashew nut.
10. Once the cashew nut becomes golden brown, remove from heat.
11. Add it to the payasam along with powdered cardamom.

🙂 Serve warm or chill.

Note:

If you want to reduce the cooking time, you can substitute half of the milk with a can of evaporated milk and follow the same procedure. This helps to bring the milk to a thick consistency faster.