Mango Rice Pudding
Cuisine: IndianDifficulty: Easy8
servings10
minutes20
minutesMango rice pudding aka mango phirni is nothing but traditional Indian rice pudding which is essentially rice cooked in sweetened milk. The mangoes transform the pudding into a tropical delight while the nuts sprinkled on top complement the dessert perfectly. I love pistachios with mango desserts but you can switch it out for chopped almonds or cashews according to your preference.
Gulkand is a sweet rose petal preserve which you can either buy from a store or make at home. If you do not have gulkand, you could use rose water instead.
The best part about this dessert is that it uses fresh, seasonal mangoes that are sweet and juicy. However, you could use store-bought mango pulp if it’s an off-season for mangoes. The only caveat is that store-bought mangoes come sweeter, which could be counteracted with less sugar in the recipe. Additionally, you could transform the rice pudding into any fresh fruit flavor of your choice by substituting the mangoes with lychees, coconut, pineapples etc as long as the substitute isn’t sour enough to curdle the milk.
Ingredients
330g ripe mangoes, peeled and blitzed into a pulp (equivalent to 2 medium-sized mangoes)
4 cups whole milk
15 strands of saffron
60g (or 4 tablespoons) rice
50g granulated sugar
2 teaspoons of gulkand or 4 tablespoons of rose water
15 pistachios, finely chopped
Directions
- Rice and shine. Tip the rice into a bowl, add water and leave to soak for 1 hour. Drain well, transfer the soaked rice into a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground with a grainy texture.
- About the milk. Set aside 4 tablespoons of milk in a small bowl and add in the saffron, allowing it to soak for 30 minutes. Pour the remaining milk into a saucepan, allowing it to simmer for 10 minutes on a low flame.
- Steadily add the rice and sugar. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring regularly to avoid lumps and ensuring that it doesn’t boil over. The mixture will start to thicken as the rice cooks.
- The rosy addition. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the rose water or gulkand while stirring well. Allow to cool for around 10-15 minutes.
- Cool it down. Setting aside a small bowl of mango pulp to serve, stir in the remainder mango pulp and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Serve it gloriously. Divide the pudding into serving bowls, add a tablespoon of mango pulp on top, ending with a garnish of pistachios.
Notes
- Ensure that the mangoes are more sweet than sour otherwise the milk might curdle.
- Mangoes generally have a sour undertone to them, which limits the shelf (or rather, fridge) life to 2-3 days under which the pudding should be consumed. After the 3 day mark, the mangoes start getting more sour in the pudding, which begins to curdle the milk. The fresher the consumption, the yummier and the healthier the dessert!
