Nolen Gurer Payesh (Rice pudding made of Date Palm Jaggery) recipe!

My first blog post this year - Welcome 2018 :) I would like to thank each and everyone who supported me till date. I am happy that this year's blog starts with an interesting recipe post. Most of my friends keep asking for recipes of dishes I post on Instagram. Mostly I share the recipes through Whatsapp messages. Tak tak tak I will type the message and send it. Unlike most of the dedicated Food bloggers, I have no patience in checking the ingredient measurements and step-by-step procedures. I am very lazy in that way! This year I see some scope for improvement and you will get to read some interesting recipes. To start with, I prepared a healthy dessert for this Makara Sankranthi - Nolen Gurer Payesh ( Rice Pudding made of Date Palm Jaggery). Date Palm Jaggery is easily available in winter season. A bowl of hot kheer on a cold winter night makes a perfect combo. There is no added sugar (white) or condensed milk in this Payesh/Kheer/Payasam. So its a guilt-free indulgence.

I am enjoying a post surgery break which started much before Christmas 2017. A friend visited me recently with some mouth watering Bengali sweets -Mishti Doi and Langcha from Bancharam and before even I could forget the taste of those yummy sweets, here comes the festival - Makara Sankranthi/ Pongal/ Bhogali Bihu/ Lohri. I wanted an easy yet drool-worthy dessert with simple ingredients and that's how the idea of Payesh ( Payasam) came in my mind. So here is the recipe for Nolen Gurer Payesh. (Don't forget to read the note)

Serves: 4+

Cooking time: ~60 mins

Ingredients

Rice                                     - 70 gm (Gobindobhog or any short grain, flavorful rice. I used Jeera rice)

Date Palm Jaggery (Nolen Gur)  - 180 -200 gm (crushed)

Milk                                    - 2 litres (full fat milk)

Dry ginger - Cardamom powder  - 1/2 tsp

Ghee                                   - 1 tbsp

Cashewnut and raisins       - for garnishing

Salt                                     - 1/4 tsp

Preparation

1. Wash and soak the rice for 30mins. Then drain the excess water and keep it for drying. Once rice become dry, coat 1/4 tsp ghee, mix well and keep it aside.
2. In a frying pan, heat ghee and fry the nuts.
3. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat milk. Let it boil by stirring occasionally and volume should reduce to half the quantity.
4. Add rice and on a low-med heat cook till rice is done.Once rice is cooked add the dry ginger- cardamom powder.
5. Switch off the flame and add salt, palm jaggery, fried nuts and mix well.
6. Keep mixing the Payesh and Palm jaggery will melt on that heat.
7. Close it with a lid for sometime before serving.

Note: I was not sure how to use Palm jaggery with milk, I did a proper research before cooking this tasty Payesh. Checked few palm jaggery recipes and videos before cooking. Make sure that you use good quality of Palm jaggery. If there are impurities, it will spoil the milk. Test a small portion of Palm jaggery before making Payesh. Also adding a pinch of salt in desserts like Payasam/Kheer will enhance the taste. Some people add water while preparing Kheer, I don't like it. With simple tricks and techniques I got the perfect Kheer/Payesh with right consistency.

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