Phirni, also known as firni, is a quick easy dessert / sweet made with rice, sugar, milk, nuts, one secret ingredient (for thickening milk quickly) with a fragrance of cardamom seeds or saffron or rose water.

Overview

Phirni, also known as firni, is a quick easy dessert / sweet made with rice, sugar, milk, nuts, one secret ingredient (for thickening milk quickly) with a fragrance of cardamom seeds or saffron or rose water. This super quick sweet is very popular in India since people consume it in fasting season like Karwa Chauth too.

There can be many variations of rice pudding like sama (Samak) rice, barley, vegetables (lauki), fox nuts (makhana), semolina (rava), and many other variations.

In my childhood memories, when my family used to fast in Monday saavan or navratri, my mother used to make phirni or kheer as a meal prep and used to set it in refrigerator. It used to be so yum that we, as kids, used to wait for that fasting day to come so that we can enjoy the yummy dessert.

Tips

I would like to share few tips and tricks for a perfect lauki barfi recipe.

• The variety of rice that should be used in phirni is any short grained rice like samba, samba mahsuri, selam samba and others. Basmati rice should not used in this dessert.

• After grinding, the texture of the grinded rice should be coarse and not smooth.

• Milk used in phirni should be full fat with cream (preferable).

• Any flavoring agent can be used like cardamom seeds or saffron or rose water.

• If you do not wish to use regular short grain rice in phirni recipe, you can add 1/2 cup of sama rice (little millet) to milk. The texture of sama rice in milk comes out perfect.

• Adding of little millet (sama rice) to milk helps in thickening of milk more quickly.

Video Recipe

Ingredients

• Short grained rice - 1/3 cup
• Milk (full fat preferable) - 2 cups
• Saffron or kesar - 15 to 20 strands
• Sama rice or little millet - 2 tbsp
• Cardamom pods - 5 to 6 pods
• Sugar - 1/2 cup

Instructions

Phirni - Preparation Steps

• Take any short grained rice. Wash and clean rice in water.

• After cleaning of rice, add water to rice and soak it for 30 minutes.

• After 30 minutes, transfer soaked rice to a grinder jar and grind it into a coarse paste.

• Add milk (preferable full fat) to a pan.

• For flavoring agent, put saffron strands into warm milk. Soak it for 15 minutes.

• When milk starts to boil, add grinded rice to milk. Mix well.

• Add sama rice or little millet to milk. Sama rice is also known as samak rice / samo rice/ sanwa millet/ shamula / shamul / kudirai valu / bonta chamalu.

• A small tip: If you do not wish to use regular short grain rice in phirni recipe, you can add 1/2 cup of sama rice (little millet) to milk. The texture of sama rice in milk comes out perfect.

• Keep stirring milk on low to medium flame.

• Add cardamom or illachi to milk.

• Add saffron milk (made earlier) to milk.

• Mix well and cook for 10 minutes on low to medium flame. Keep stirring the milk on frequent intervals.

• Slowly milk starts to thicken. This is the magic of sama or little millet as it quickens the process of thickening of milk.

• Add sugar to milk.

• Cook for another 5 minutes along with scratching milk to the sides as it enhances the taste of phirni.

• Phirni is ready. You can serve warm phirni in a bowl or let it rest in refrigerator. Serve it chilled as this is my favorite.

• Phirni will remain good in refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.

• Enjoy this yummy easy pudding with your family & friends!