Phirni or Firni

Firni is a popular dessert dish in north India. When I first heard this I wondered what it is. Even you, if you are hearing this for the first time, you will be very much surprised by the ingredients and method involved in making this Firni. It looks so simple isn’t it? Hmm… its taste is marvellous. You should have it cold. This dessert dish firni gives a memorable finish to a hearty meal.

Preparation Time : 30 min

How To Make Firni or Phirni:

1. Soak the Badam in warm water for an hour and then peel the brown outer covering.
2. Soak Cashew nuts in 2 Tbsp of milk for an hour. Drop the peeled Badam pieces into this. Grind this mixture in a Mixer grinder until it becomes fine paste.
3. Take 1 teaspoon of Rice flour and mix it well in 3 tsp of milk and make it a paste. While mixing ensure you avoid the flour lumps. Keep it aside.
4. Boil the remaining milk. Add sugar to the boiling milk, let it dissolve and stir for 15 minutes in a medium flame, till it becomes a bit thick and reduces to 1/4th of initial quantity of milk.
5. Add the Cashew and Badam paste to the boiling milk and mix and stir well and see to it that the mixture does not form lumps. Boil the whole mixture for 10 minutes. Then add the rice flour paste to this mixture and stir for 5 more minutes in a low flame. Add Saffron and stir it till it becomes little bit thick and then remove from the flame.

Serving Method:

1. Pour the mixture in a serving bowl. Garnish with Cashew, Raisins, and grated Badam as shown in the image.
2. Keep the mixture in a Refrigerator for an hour. Serve Cool.

Note: Rice flour is added just to become the mixture thick. You can also add the milk cream or fresh malai when milk is boiling. It takes about half an hour to prepare the Firni.

This lip-smacking dessert looks great and tastes almost like milk ice-cream.