Pista Phirni / Kheer recipe

Pista phirni is a very popular and delicious Punjabi style kheer in which crushed rice is cooked in creamy milk with pistachio or pista and flavored with rose water. This phirni is very thick like rabdi ( Indian dessert made with milk and sugar) but the taste is even better, as it contains tiny granules of pista and rice. The probable difference between kheer and phirni is the ratio of milk and rice, in phirni very less amount of rice is used as opposed to kheer. The other difference may be that phirni is always served cold but kheer can be served hot or cold.
The first time i heard about phirni was from my sister, she used to make it when i was young. So i learned this recipe from her and for that i owe her big time! People love this awesome dessert very much and always ask me for the recipe. So pista phirni is definitely a party pleaser. I love this recipe not only for its divine taste and texture but also because whenever there is a party or get together in my home, i can prepare it a day before and keep it in the refrigerator. So next day i can get on with my other works and also phirni does taste better after a day. 
You can make phirni with almonds too, if you are not a fan of pistachio.  

Pista Phirni / Kheer recipe

Recipe by Neha NairCourse: DessertCuisine: Indian, PunjabiDifficulty: Medium

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

50

minutes

Pista Phirni is a delicious and creamy Punjabi rice pudding recipe in which rice and pistachio are cooked in a creamy thick milk, flavored with cardamom and rose water.

Ingredients

• 5 cups of whole milk (1 liter+1cup)

• 1 cup of heavy cream

• 4 Tbsp of basmati rice

• 1 cup of sugar

• 1/2 tsp of cardamom powder

• 1/4 cup of pistachio, finely chopped

• A generous pinch of kesar / saffron

• 1/2 tsp of rose water

Directions

• Soak rice for about 30 minutes then drain off the water and coarsely grind it . Mix the ground rice with little cold water or milk.
• Bring milk and cream together to a boil, then lower the heat and slowly pour the rice mixture to the hot milk stirring constantly. Be careful not to form lumps.
• Keep stirring over low-medium heat after every 3 to 4 minutes until the rice is cooked ( about 30-35 minutes ) and phirni is creamy and thickened.
• Now add sugar, kesar, cardamom and half of the pistachio and stir until the sugar is fully dissolved.
• Take off the pot from flame and add rose water and rest of the crushed pistachio to the phirni .
• Let the phirni comes to a room temperature, then chill it in a refrigerator and pista phirni is done. Serve pista phirni cold.

Notes

• Add crushed almond instead of pistachio for badam / almond phirni.