Indian Rice Pudding (Instant Pot)
Rice Pudding is a comforting simple and luscious dessert, found with a few degrees of variation across India. The consistency I strive for is a creamy, mellow concistency typical of the Bengali rice pudding. As child, my grandmother used to patiently nurse this dessert for half a day, having it ready just in time. Every time I visited without fail.
It is something I knew just happened. Fast forward several years, this is the one treat I can get my family to agree on. Especially, my rather particular daughter. And this is when I started paying attention to the making of rice pudding. This omnipresent dessert is called Kheer in North India, Payesh in Bengali. A key ingredient to the rich conistency is thickening the whole milk low and slow. One of the few things, ok many things that I have difficulty fitting into an on the go schedule. So, I have come up with multiple compromizes to get an enviably good payesh or kheer.
My Rice Pudding Story
The festive season is here (It is Rosh Hashanah for some, Navratri for others, and the Beginnings of Durga Puja for Bengalis). This is an apt sweet offering for the season.
In this recipe, I use evaporated milk. This helps you skip the time needed to thicken the milk. While, some people espouse condensed milk, I find it difficult to control the sweetness so my preference is evaporated milk. I use good quality dark brown sugar in moderation and if you have jaggery around feel free to use it in this recipe.
My stove top version can be found in The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles and a slow cooker version in Spices and Seasons. Today thanks to a demo at the Harisson Public Library I bring to you the Instant Pot version.
A few notes to ensuring the perfect textured rice pudding:
- I mostly use white Basmati rice for the instant pot version. You can use any other variety, just watch the time.
- The low pressure mode is important.
- Allow the pressure cooker to rest for at least 10 minutes or do a natural release. The milk is very hot and tends to spurt out before then.
- The rest is easy.
- I use sliced almonds to finish, you can add in raisins and or pistachios if you wish.
- A general rule of thumb for this recipe is 1 is to 4 milk to rice ratio, plus a little extra to finish.
- If you do not have evaporated milk that is fine – you will have a slightly thinner rice pudding.Other soothing and milky puddings include this vegan mango rice pudding and this creamy millet pudding.
If you like this recipe and want more ideas, do join my Indian Instant Pot Facebook group and Legume Love Group. Of course Instant Indian is ready for pre-order, joining its siblings The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles and Spices and Seasons.
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A fool proof comforting and ridiculously easy take on rice pudding.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/4 cup of basmati rice
- 3 cups plus 3/4 cup of whole milk (see note)
- 1 and 1/2 cups (1 12 ounce can evaporated milk) (see note)
- 8 to 10 cardamoms, gently bruised
- 1/2 teaspoon saffron strands
- 3/4 cup of brown sugar
- Sliced almonds to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Place the rice, 3 cups of milk and the evaporated milk in your instant pot.
- Add in the cardamoms and saffron strands and cover the instant pot.
- Set to 25 minutes on low pressure. Release the pressure after 15 minutes or allow a natural steam release.
- Remove the lid, mix well. Stir in the sugar and the remaining 3/4 cup of milk.
- Garnish with the sliced almonds and serve.
Notes
- If you do not have evaporated milk, you can substitute with whole milk or half and half. - Add in the last 3/4 cup of milk as needed, you want a porridge like consistency.
Momela Bayer
I love rice pudding and I love cardamom so I was thrilled to find your recipe. I’m unfamiliar with using cardamom that isn’t pre-ground. So where the ingreadient list says “8 to 10 cardamoms, gently bruised” does that mean to use the seeds from 8 to 10 cardamom pods? And does gently burised mean pnly slightly crushed but not to the extent of turning them into a powder?
rinkub@aol.com
Hi Momela,
If it acceptable if you want to use ground cardamom instead, just add about 1 and 1/2 teaspoons while cooking. However, yes, the gently bruised means crushed enough to open the buds but not really powdering them.
jayashreetrao
The pudding looks creamy and rich. I have never added brown sugar to it, must try it, next time I make it.
Shobha Keshwani
Such a lovely, creamy texture of the pudding. Brown sugar gives a nice colour also. Mostly I also use Jaggery powder in my sweets. Adding evaporated milk is a nice tip.
kalyani
The mild golden yellow hue of this kheer along with the mellowed rice kheer simmered away to the perfect thickness looks so great ! nice to have jumped on to ur blog, Sarika 🙂
rinkub@aol.com
Thank you Kalyani
Superduper kitchen
The kheer looks rich & creamy. Also I loved the colour of the kheer. I wonder how many ways we make rice kheer in India.
mayurisjikoni
Rinku, the kheer looks so so delish, love how creamy it looks. I still make it how your grandmother did, stirring it constantly over low heat till it thickens.
rinkub@aol.com
Now you are inspiring me to try it that way again!
Preethicuisine
Rice pudding looks so creamy and rich. I loved the use of evaporated milk to cut short the time. Adding jaggery is another interesting idea. This pudding looks irresistible.
rinkub@aol.com
The jaggery is a very Bengali thing!
Sarika Gunjal (Spice Zone)
Your Kheer looks awesome.. love the rich and creamy texture and addition of brown sugar.
rinkub@aol.com
Thank you! Very simple and my daughter loves it!
Usha Rao
Mouthwatering pudding! It is very creamy and perfect consistency. Those tips are quite useful in cooking the kheer and cooking in low pressure is the key as that is similar to slow cooking on stovetop.
priya vj
Nice and quick kheer for those using IP ..have never tried using brown sugar for kheer .must try sometime soon .
Tania
I was looking for a recipe for Bengali kheer using instant pot and stumbled on your payesh recipe. Do you think the instant pot can help with making kheer from scratch?
rinkub@aol.com
Yes, this recipe gets you pretty close. If you use Patali gur, instead of sugar, and Gobindo Bhog rice, you will get closer to Bengali payesh.
Puja 2021 - A recipe collection - Spice Chronicles
[…] Payesh or rice pudding, another winner from my instant pot collections. […]