I am an unabashed Desserts person! Not in big quantities, but a little meetha at the end of meal is a must- have!
The food group, CaL, which I am a part of, is a great place for learning. New ideas, new cultures and fusion too! I came across this recipe on my dear friend Reem’s post. It a traditional meetha (dessert) from Pakistan which gives an interesting twist to the rice pudding (kheer) by adding some custard and khoya/maawa. It is a fellow CaLite Faiza Ahmad’s recipe.

I made some Layered Fruit Dessert with Faiza’s Traditional Pakisthani Meetha recipe as the base.
We had some of the dessert warm, in the traditional way and the left over was chilled and used to layer with strawberries, figs and bananas- both versions yum
Thanks Faiza and Reem  😀

I made minor changes to the original recipe and here is how I prepared the dessert.
(Serves 6)

2 litres of full cream milk
½ cup basmati rice, soaked for an hour and crumbled slightly
¾ cup sugar
2 Tbsp vanilla custard powder dissolved in ½ cup of milk
1 cup of Strawberries and bananas sliced
4-5 figs peeled and cubed
12-15 almonds slivered
2 tsp cardamom powder

Bring the milk to a boil and keep boiling on medium flame for 20 minutes. Keep stirring to avoid scalding.
Add the rice and cook on low flame for about 30 minutes till the rice is well cooked and mixed well with the milk.
Add the custard powder and milk mixture and keep stirring. Do not leave unattended at all as this burns quickly!
Cook for 7-8 minutes.
Add sugar and cardamom powder and cook stirring for 5 odd minutes.
Take off the heat and serve warm.

To make the layered dessert
Chill the dessert.
Take wide and deep serving bowls.
Layer fruits and the prepared dessert.
Top with some fresh and dry fruit and serve.

Here is Faiza’s recipe –
11/2 ltr of milk,
1/2 cup of rice,
3/4cup of sugar,
1/2cup of khoya,
1 tsp vanilla custard powder,
1tsp ilaichi powder,
1tsp kewra water,
Almonds for garnishing.
Boil the milk and add rice.cook untill rice become soft. Keep stirring.
Then add khoya and sugar.Keep stirring.
Now mix vanilla custard powder with 1/4 cup of milk and add this to the kheer.
At the end add ilaichi powder and kewra water.
Garnish with nuts but traditionally only almonds used. Let it cool on room temperature. It is usually served warm. It is a traditional meetha served in ‘matti ki katori’/earthen bowls at weddings.