Ingredients required
1. milk 2 lit.
2. ghee 250 gm
3. rice 100 gm
4. sugar 750 gm
5. cashew nut 150 gm
6. almond 100 gm
7. raisin 100 gm
8. saffron 0.5 gm
9. cardamom 10 gm
Procedure
Soak rice in water for half an hour.
Prepare the garnishing and keep aside. First roast the cashew nuts in ghee. Take three spoons of ghee and 150 gms of cashew nuts in a pan and roast them on slow fire. When they turn golden brown remove them from the ghee and keep aside. Roast the almonds in the same ghee till the colour changes slightly. Remove the almonds and keep aside. Roast the raisins in the same ghee till the colour changes slightly. Remove the raisins and keep aside. [This ghee can be used to add to the Kshîrānnam.] Powder the cardamom after removing the outer skin. Grind the inner black granules to a fine powder and keep aside. Take the saffron, add two drops of milk and grind it to a paste. The saffron and the milk should mix well. It will be a sort of orangish paste.
Prepare the rice milk porridge. Heat the milk. Remove the soaked rice from water, add it to the milk and keep stirring. Boil the milk and rice together till the rice gets cooked. Then add sugar and keep stirring. As the rice-milk mixture turns into a thick paste add a spoonful of ghee once in a while and then stir. This makes it easy to stir the contents. Cook till the concentrated milk and the cooked rice form a thick paste.
Add the saffron paste and mix well. Add the cardamom powder and mix well. Remove from the fire and decorate the dessert with the roasted cashew nuts, almonds and raisins. Pour the remaining ghee evenly on top, cover the pan with a lid and keep it aside for 10 mts.
Now Kshìrānnam, the Rice Milk Porridge is ready to serve as a dessert.