On Wednesday night, in a mood to use up some cream I had lying about, I
made Shir Berenj - essentially a super-high-test version of Kheer, which is
itself rice pudding made without eggs. Here's what I made/did:

4 cups whole milk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup short-grain rice
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp rosewater
8 cardamom pods

Soak the rice overnight in the water. Bring this to a boil, stir until all
the water is absorbed, then pour in the milk and immediately reduce the
heat as low as it will go. Cook for about 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally,
or until the mixture is very thick. About 2 hours after starting, extract
the seeds from the cardamom pods and grind into the milk/rice mixture,
stirring thoroughly. At the end of the 4-5 hours, add the rosewater and
stir in. Immediately scald the cream, stir this in, and remove from heat.
Stir in the sugar. Pour into serving bowls or ramekins and chill until set.

I poured about 3/4 of the mixture, still hot, into self-sealing jars and
set them in the back of the fridge. They're in there now - it's safe to say
the mixture was near boiling when the jars were filled and had been so for
several hours. So we're talking pudding that had been thoroughly cooked
sitting in sealed jars in the back of the fridge. I'd like to share the
pudding with someone, but it's not likely anybody will be coming over in
the immediate next few days. How long do you think it will last before
going bad?

--
Alex Rast

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(Alex Rast) wrote in
:

> On Wednesday night, in a mood to use up some cream I had lying about,
> I made Shir Berenj - essentially a super-high-test version of Kheer,
> which is itself rice pudding made without eggs. Here's what I
> made/did:
>
> 4 cups whole milk
> 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
> 1/2 cup short-grain rice
> 1/2 cup water
> 2 tbsp sugar
> 2 tbsp rosewater
> 8 cardamom pods
>
> Soak the rice overnight in the water. Bring this to a boil, stir until
> all the water is absorbed, then pour in the milk and immediately
> reduce the heat as low as it will go. Cook for about 4-5 hours,
> stirring occasionally, or until the mixture is very thick. About 2
> hours after starting, extract the seeds from the cardamom pods and
> grind into the milk/rice mixture, stirring thoroughly. At the end of
> the 4-5 hours, add the rosewater and stir in. Immediately scald the
> cream, stir this in, and remove from heat. Stir in the sugar. Pour
> into serving bowls or ramekins and chill until set.
>
> I poured about 3/4 of the mixture, still hot, into self-sealing jars
> and set them in the back of the fridge. They're in there now - it's
> safe to say the mixture was near boiling when the jars were filled and
> had been so for several hours. So we're talking pudding that had been
> thoroughly cooked sitting in sealed jars in the back of the fridge.
> I'd like to share the pudding with someone, but it's not likely
> anybody will be coming over in the immediate next few days. How long
> do you think it will last before going bad?
>

Assuming the milk and cream were reasonably fresh to begin with, I'd say
a week. BTW, this sounds really good!

Wayne

Alex Rast wrote:
>
> On Wednesday night, in a mood to use up some cream I had lying about, I
> made Shir Berenj - essentially a super-high-test version of Kheer, which

I had some kheer hanging about once, in a good, cold fridge. I found it
tasted "old" before it spoiled, and that was about 2 weeks into it.
blacksalt

use whole milk. avoid cream. make it healthy, its the same, infact
much better. cream only adds fat to kheer, we dont add cream in india
to make rice pudding. use basmati rice and not short grain rice...

cook the rice in milk and keep boiling it till the rice is done.

Put more sugar...the sweetness that you desire.

Ronnie

(Alex Rast) wrote in message >...
> On Wednesday night, in a mood to use up some cream I had lying about, I
> made Shir Berenj - essentially a super-high-test version of Kheer, which is
> itself rice pudding made without eggs. Here's what I made/did:
>
> 4 cups whole milk
> 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
> 1/2 cup short-grain rice
> 1/2 cup water
> 2 tbsp sugar
> 2 tbsp rosewater
> 8 cardamom pods
>
> Soak the rice overnight in the water. Bring this to a boil, stir until all
> the water is absorbed, then pour in the milk and immediately reduce the
> heat as low as it will go. Cook for about 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally,
> or until the mixture is very thick. About 2 hours after starting, extract
> the seeds from the cardamom pods and grind into the milk/rice mixture,
> stirring thoroughly. At the end of the 4-5 hours, add the rosewater and
> stir in. Immediately scald the cream, stir this in, and remove from heat.
> Stir in the sugar. Pour into serving bowls or ramekins and chill until set.
>
> I poured about 3/4 of the mixture, still hot, into self-sealing jars and
> set them in the back of the fridge. They're in there now - it's safe to say
> the mixture was near boiling when the jars were filled and had been so for
> several hours. So we're talking pudding that had been thoroughly cooked
> sitting in sealed jars in the back of the fridge. I'd like to share the
> pudding with someone, but it's not likely anybody will be coming over in
> the immediate next few days. How long do you think it will last before
> going bad?

at Sun, 09 May 2004 17:47:49 GMT in
>,
(Ronnie Rao) wrote :

>use whole milk. avoid cream. make it healthy, its the same, infact
>much better. cream only adds fat to kheer, we dont add cream in india
>to make rice pudding.

Yes, that's the Indian method. However, the Persian version does add cream,
which lends the pudding a silkier texture. As it happens, my *personal*
preference is for the milk-only (Indian) version, but many of the people I
happen to know prefer the Persian version with cream.

> use basmati rice and not short grain rice...

I've done that before as well, with both versions. It's another texture
tweak. Basmati lends a more distinct grain to the pudding, where short-
grain makes it ultra-creamy. Combining that with using cream or no, you
have a whole spectrum of textures from relatively loose and separate
(milk+basmati) to incredibly creamy and smooth (milk+cream+short-grain). I
personally tend to gravitate towards the middle, and so I prefer the all-
milk version made with short-grain, and the milk+cream version made with
Basmati, but it's all a question of what you prefer in a final texture.

>Put more sugar...the sweetness that you desire.

With the amount of milk in the recipe, it's already pretty sweet, and I
find 2 tbsp sugar to be the right amount. Any more makes it cloying, at
least to me, and to most of the people I know. If you want a more candy-
like flavour, however, I don't see anything wrong with adding more sugar.
Honey also works extremely well (again, this is what I personally prefer).
You've got to be careful, however, because the enzymes in honey will break
down the structure somewhat, and if you add too much honey, it will become
very soupy.

Many thanks to the people who responded with their estimates on timing.
That more or less goes along with my feel - that 1 week is probably pretty
safe, and in 2 weeks it's still OK but the flavour will deteriorate to some
degree.

>
>Ronnie
>
(Alex Rast) wrote in message
>. ..
>> On Wednesday night, in a mood to use up some cream I had lying about,
>> I made Shir Berenj - essentially a super-high-test version of Kheer,
>> which is itself rice pudding made without eggs. Here's what I
>> made/did:
>>
>> 4 cups whole milk
>> 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
>> 1/2 cup short-grain rice
>> 1/2 cup water
>> 2 tbsp sugar
>> 2 tbsp rosewater
>> 8 cardamom pods
>>
>> Soak the rice overnight in the water. Bring this to a boil, stir until
>> all the water is absorbed, then pour in the milk and immediately
>> reduce the heat as low as it will go. Cook for about 4-5 hours,
>> stirring occasionally, or until the mixture is very thick. About 2
>> hours after starting, extract the seeds from the cardamom pods and
>> grind into the milk/rice mixture, stirring thoroughly. At the end of
>> the 4-5 hours, add the rosewater and stir in. Immediately scald the
>> cream, stir this in, and remove from heat. Stir in the sugar. Pour
>> into serving bowls or ramekins and chill until set.
>>
>> I poured about 3/4 of the mixture, still hot, into self-sealing jars
>> and set them in the back of the fridge. They're in there now - it's
>> safe to say the mixture was near boiling when the jars were filled and
>> had been so for several hours. So we're talking pudding that had been
>> thoroughly cooked sitting in sealed jars in the back of the fridge.
>> I'd like to share the pudding with someone, but it's not likely
>> anybody will be coming over in the immediate next few days. How long
>> do you think it will last before going bad?
>


--
Alex Rast

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