Kheer

I asked  Anita (the cook) to make kheer the other day, thinking that kheer was the same thing as rice pudding.  Since my "i'm gonna give up sugar" resolution lasted all of about one day, I figured I might as well have my favorite comfort food.    I love a thick creamy pudding.  

She told me I'd have to have milk, butter and kawa.   What's kawa?   Good question.   The hindi-english translator translated kawa as, you guessed it, kawa.     I finally located the solid milk product of some kind at the nearby sweet shop, although I had to call Anita to have her say the word in Hindi because they couldn't understand me for anything.  For 45rs ($1) I brought home a ball and a half of kawa.  

I've decided that it's not a bad idea to watch Anita cook every now and again.   I love to cook and any new ideas of how and what to cook are always welcome.    Kheer was my first lesson.   

1. Deseed several Cardamon pods and crush the seeds with a spoon (translate this as: put the seeds in the coffee grinder and push the on button).   

2.  Melt 1/4 cup butter and ghee and fry your crushed cardamon.

3.  Melt 1.5 balls of kawa in this butter mix.  (I do realize that until we figure out what in the heck kawa is, this recipe is rendered useless).

4.  Add 1-2 cups boiled milk.   Add cooked rice. 

5.  Add sugar to taste and cook the milk down.

My conclusions:  kheer is not pudding.  It's not really thick and creamy the way I like my pudding, but when Anita made it, it was delicious albeit different from what I expected.

So this morning I decided to make kheer with leftover black rice for breakfast (mostly to use up the rice).   I cheated.   I heated up the milk first then added only a couple full cardamon pods, a few spoonfuls of butter and a 1/2 ball of kawa.  Then I added the black rice and sugar.   My conclusion?   Stick to Anita's recipe.   You apparently can't skip the process as the result will not be the same.    I wonder if the street dogs will like my attempt.