Saffron & Rose Indian Pudding
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
Serves 4 as a dessert
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
- 2 teaspoons ghee or butter
- 1 cup vermicelli noodles, broken up into inch long pieces (or thereabouts)
- 1 litre/2.11 pints milk
- 1/2 cup sultanas or raisins
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds, crushed
- Pinch saffron strands
- 5 tablespoons sugar (or more or less to taste)
- 2 tablespoons pistachios, crushed
- Edible rose petals
Step 1 - Heat the ghee in a medium sized saucepan and fry the noodles lightly coating them with the ghee. Remove from the pan and set aside. You can also do this step while the milk is simmering to save time.
Step 2 - Heat the milk with the sultanas or raisins, cardamom and saffron bring to a simmer cooking it for 30-40 minutes until the milk has reduced and thickened. Add the fried noodles to the milk along with the sugar and simmer until noodles are soft and silky - about 7-8 minutes. Allow to cool. Spoon into cups and top with pistachio and rose petals.
How to make ghee
Ghee is essentially clarified butter which means butter with the milk or dairy solids removed from it. Having them taken out allows ghee to be heated at a higher smokepoint. Making ghee is easy and can be done in small quantities-certainly you need small quantities in this recipe with just two teaspoons. I made a bit more as it tastes great and is wonderful for cooking.
First heat up your butter in a small saucepan so that it starts to caramelise a little - similar to browned butter but perhaps not as intense. Strain it through a sieve or cheesecloth and the clear, liquid gold will remain while the sieve catches the white, fluffy solids which you can discard.