Rice Kesari Bath

Preparation

• Soak saffron strands in warm milk for about 10 minutes. Heat a cooking pan with a tsp of ghee and fry cashews followed by raisins. Transfer them to a bowl.

Method

1. Add some more ghee to the same cooking pan and heat it in medium flame. As the ghee starts melting, include washed, drained rice to it. Fry it with continuous stirring for 5 minutes. Add around 1.5 cups of water and cook till the rice is cooked soft.
2. When the rice is all done, add sugar to it. Stir till the sugar dissolves completely and mixture becomes thin. Add rest of the ghee too and cook till the mixture thickens a bit.
3. Finally add milk which has saffron strands soaked in it, ghee fried dry fruits and cardamom powder. Combine everything well and cook till the rice kesari bath oozes ghee and doesn’t stick to pan any more.
4. Divine tasting rice kesari bath is ready to offer on the eve of Navaratri.

Notes

• Do not compromise with quantity of sugar and ghee which directly affects the texture and taste of kesari bath.
• You can consider using any variety of rice like jeera rice or Basmati or regular sona masori.
• The rice should be cooked to very soft, easy mash-able form. If your rice variety needs additional water to get cooked, go ahead and add it. For me 1.5 cup of water was enough.
• Once you add sugar, the rice grains doesn’t cook and soften. So make sure it is cooked well before that.
• The color of the rice kesari bath depends on amount of saffron strands. Do not add too much saffron which may turn the taste towards bitter.