Foxtail Millet Kheer
Soak 1 h · Prep 5 min · Cook 55 min · Servings not given in the source
Make
Ingredients
- dehulled foxtail millet — 50 g
- water (3 parts water to 1 part millet, as the method says)
- milk — 400 ml
- sugar — 50 g
- ghee — 25 g
- dry fruits (cashew nuts, almonds, raisins, pistachios) — 20 g
- cardamom powder (a pinch)
Method
- Leave the foxtail millet to soak for an hour, then drain it.
- Put it in a heavy-based pan with three times its volume of water and cook for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Fry the dry fruits in the ghee and set them aside.
- Bring the milk to a boil, add the cooked millet and let it cook for 20 minutes.
- Add the sugar and keep stirring gently for about 10 minutes until the kheer is thick and the grains are fully cooked.
- Stir in the cardamom, scatter the fried dry fruits on top and serve hot.
In history
The Taittiriya Samhita of the Black Yajurveda (II.2.11.4) describes foxtail millet (priyangu) cooked in milk, as an offering:
“offer to the Maruts an oblation of panic seed in the milk of a speckled (cow)”
A. B. Keith, The Veda of the Black Yajus School (Taittiriya Sanhita), Harvard Oriental Series 18 (1914), p. 159; priyangu = foxtail millet (Panicum italicum) in Macdonell & Keith's Vedic Index (1912)
Tips
- General practice: stir often once the milk goes in so the kheer does not catch on the bottom of the pan.
Recipe from ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Millet Recipes (2021), PDF p. 99 (printed p. 97), written in our own words.