Nolen Gurer Payesh ( a sweet pudding or kheer made up of date palm jaggery and gobinda bhog rice and full cream milk ) | Bengali Style Gurer Payesh

Not just Bengalis, people all over the world want to relive the taste of Nolen Gur Payesh (sweet pudding or kheer made up of date palm jaggery and Govinda-bhog rice). It is no less than tasting amrita (nectar). However, Every Bengali family has their own way of making it. Today’s recipe of Payesh is my take on the famous Bengali dessert ‘Nolen Gurer Payesh’. This recipe I am sharing is inspired by my mother-in-law. She makes awesome ‘payesh’, I tried to replicate the same with my own twist.

Nolen Gur is made from khejur (Date palm) sap which is collected from the tree with a pipe called Noli (in Bengali). This is new molasses made from the first juice. Jaggery may be in liquid form called ‘jhola gur’ at first and when the liquid thickens it hardens and is made into 'patali gur'. Both ‘jhola gur’ or 'patali gur' is used to make sweets but in this ‘payesh’ recipe, I used the hard form of jaggery called 'patali gur'.

Ingredients

·       Milk: 1.2 liter

·       Govind-bhog Rice: 100 gms

·       Date palm Jaggery (Patali): 250gms

·       Ghee: 1 teaspoon

·       Cardamom: 1 tablespoon

·       Cashew nut and raisin as per taste

·       liquid Date palm Jaggery (jhola gur): 1 teaspoon or as per taste.

·       sugar: 1 tablespoon

·       Dry fruits (almonds, Pistachio, cashew, and raisins)

Method

ü  Take a non-stick pan and add sugar and caramelized it add some milk and stir it vigorously. Soon the milk will turn slightly brown in color. Then add the rest of the milk,

ü   Thicken the milk on low heat Stir continuously.

ü  After some time add cashew. Let the cashew soak in the milk and then stir the milk again at low heat.

ü  Wash the rice in water. And add this rice to the milk and let it soak milk for 5-10 minutes at low flame.

ü  Keep stirring the milk and continuously check whether the rice grain has to soften or not. This might take 10 min or more as per the rice age.

ü  When the rice softens a bit add the ‘patali gur’ at low flame. It is necessary that you keep the flame low otherwise there is a chance of the milk to curdle. It is because jaggery sometimes has impurities in it which at high heat cause this curdling.

ü  Mix the jaggery in the milk at low heat or no heat. Soon the milk with start thickening and the color will become more golden brownish. Cook for some more time.

ü  At this stage add cardamom powder and a spoon of ghee. It will enhance the aroma of the ‘payesh’.

ü  At the end add raisins and keep the dish like this without heat. Soon the raisin will plump up.

ü  The ‘payesh’ is ready to be served. One can garnish the payesh with liquid jaggery and dry fruits (almonds, pesta, cashew and raisins)