Winter spent waste for Bengalis if Khejur Gurh (Date Palm jaggery) is missing from the sweets during this period. These days Kolkata has really a short winter and even a shorter supply of the Khejur Gurh. Still one can find shops full of sweets made with date palm jaggery such as Gurher Rasogolla and various Gurher Shondesh over the winter months. They have a very different and distinct flavour from the usual sugar sweets. Although today my recipe is not about sweets, still it has a common link in the form of Khejur Gurh. Rice pudding or Payesh, as called in Bengali, is a very common dessert throughout India and known as Kheer over north and Payasam down south. Ideally it is prepared with milk, rice and sugar where the twist I gave to this recipe is by replacing sugar with date plam jaggery. The smell of Khejur gurh in the pudding will definitely indulge you to fall in instant love with the dish. So here is the recipe of our very much favourite Gurher Payesh or Rice pudding with date palm jaggery for you my friends. Enjoy the bliss of winter 🙂

Ingredients to serve 6-7 :

1. Full cream milk – 1 liter
2. Rice – 2 tbspoon (Preferably short grain rice)
3. Date palm jaggery as per your taste (break into small pieces)
4. Chopped cashew nut for garnishing (optional)

Procedure :

Rinse the rice 2-3 times and keep aside.

Heat the milk in a heavy based pan over low-medium flame, stirring occasionally.

As the milk starts boiling add the rice and cook till it gets soft. Stir frequently to avoid the burnt at the bottom of the pan.

Add jaggery and mix very well, so that no solid piece of jaggery remains in the pudding.

As the milk reaches your desired consistency (I generally like to reduce the milk volume to its half), put the gas off.

Sprinkle over the cashew nut and serve ‘gurher payesh’ cold.