Saffron & Cardamom Flavoured Apple Kheer / ಸೇಬು, ಕೇಸರಿ ಮತ್ತು ಏಲಕ್ಕಿ ಪಾಯಸ / Kesar Elaichi Seb Kheer

Namaste 😊

We all want to make our jobs easier most of the times don't we? How about a recipe that doesn't ask for too much effort and doesn't ask you to compromise on the taste either?!

This is one of those. Apple kheer without cooking apples!

Kheer is a form of dessert which can be made from a lot of things like vermicelli, rice, rava, vegetables, nuts, fruits, lentils, legumes etc etc etc. And by far the easiest of all desserts I have known! But it wasn't the case few years ago when I had just begun to learn cooking.

One day a small bunch of relatives who were in nearby area for shopping called up and said they would be arriving for lunch. They were so kind to tell us not to cook anything much, just rice and sambar is more than enough (may be they meant 'please don't cook anything🙏!!' 🤣) But as we Indians are very hospitable and it is a custom to serve any sweet dish for guests, I wanted to make some dessert as well! By then I had just learnt to make rice in pressure cooker and some jugaad sambar! I took all the time in the world and made average tasting sambar. My husband made tomato and onion raita (the only thing that turned out nice that day) and I started making vermicelli kheer for dessert. I boiled the milk, roasted vermicelli (some of it got burnt as I did it on high flame!), then added sugar, cardamom and dry fruits, vanilla essence and added all the semiya I roasted/burnt. It looked perfect to me then. After a while when I checked all the semiya was stuck together and had become lumpy! I hadn't stirred it at all while it was cooking, let it cook for too long, added way too much semiya and it made the kheer lumpy, thick and sticky...awwww how exciting!!🙆‍♀️By then it was lunch time, guests had already arrived and I had no time to troubleshoot (not that I knew exactly how to fix it). I switched off the flame and thought to myself everything is going to be okay (as there wasn't much room for anything else to go wrong because everything had gone wrong already!) and started serving. Adding to the joy it turned out that the rice had turned out to be fully mushy as I cooked large quantity in a pressure cooker and let it sit for a long time without opening the lid or transferring it to another dish once it was done! The rice also got burnt at the bottom because of excess heat. Beat that!! 💁‍♀️ I couldn't really ask my hungry guests to wait for an hour or more who were already sitting at the table waiting for lunch to be served until I place the order and get some decent food delivered from a restaurant.

I served the grand mess to my lovely guests who did not even give me a tiniest hint that the lunch was a disaster! They ate it smilingly, felt genuinely happy that I made an effort. Instead of being embarrassed I was happy by the end of the day!! And it is because of such encouragements and genuine appreciation from people around me I am where I am today.

🌸I understood something after a while - In general it is not the failure that hurts. It is the negative, not so nice reaction that you receive in return for your genuine efforts hurts the most. So appreciate people around you even after their unsuccessful attempts at things because you always touch someone's life in ways you never know 😊

Thank you all the lovely people for your constant encouragement, appreciation, support and tips by far. You will all be remembered fondly as ever😘

Ingredients:

3 medium size red apples

1/2 litre full fat milk

7-8 strands of saffron

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

8-10 cashews

1/2 cup sugar

A generous pinch of salt

Raisins, pistachios & saffron to garnish (optional)

Method:

-Soak the saffron in 3 tbsp warm milk for 20 minutes

-Boil the milk along with cardamom until it reduces to half

-Add sugar and boil for 5 more minutes and add a pinch of salt and cashews

-Switch off the flame, add the soaked saffron with milk and allow the mixture to completely cool down

-Once milk comes to room temperature, peel, core and chop the apples into small pieces and immediately add it to milk. Give it a good mix

-Refrigerate for about an hour and serve with any kind of garnish you like

Notes:

You can either chop or grate the apples. I used a food processor to chop them into tiny bits

If you want, you can saute the grated apples in ghee until cooked and add it to the milk mixture in the end, but I did not want to cook the apples so added it raw. It tasted equally good.

Do not chop the apples in advance as it will turn brown quickly

This isn't a very watery kheer as I have used less milk. If you want it thinner you can add more milk and adjust the sugar quantity accordingly.

I kept it in fridge for 3 days and it remained fresh throughout.

Cheers!