INDIAN CUISINE: Exotic and Delicious Dessert - Sabudana Kheer

There is no need of travelling far or going to restaurants of certain cuisine to have a dessert of exotic flavors and aromas! Here on the West side of the map of the world, most of the desserts that people prepare nowadays are cakes, small cakes, muffins, fudges etc.; desserts that are quite often based on chocolate, fruits, syrups, baking powders, eggs, gluten flours and in general all kinds of bought powders, aromas, grease etc. that are not always beneficial for our health. Indian culture is not originally familiar with sponge cakes and similar oven- and/or microwave-prepared desserts.

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Indian desserts are referred to as Mithai in northern India. Mithaiya (pl.) are in fact what we consider as "sweets". These sweet dishes, often very simple with just a couple of ingredients, are usually based on milk products and sugar or some other kind of natural sweetener. Back in the time, people could not afford their families rich desserts. Their lifestyles and diet were very simple and so were the dessert recipes. Sweets were, therefore, made with what people already had at home and in such a way their preparation would not take too much of time. Some of the sweets must be eaten fresh while others are made to last for a very long time.

Variation of these sweets are too numerous to be counted. Once you have mastered the original recipe, adding or substituting ingredients becomes a fine, small type of an art. Ingredients which will be rotated in most of the cases are fruits, dried fruits and nuts. There is often no rule and the recipes are easily adapted according to the person's taste buds and preferences! That is the beauty of Indian Mithaiya in contrast to Western desserts in which even one slight change might end up fatal for the result. Mithai which we want to present you today is called as Sabudana Kheer.

Sabudana Kheer - a delicious exotic, tapioca and milk based dessert!

Kheer itself is a dessert which can be compared to what we know as rice pudding. Kheer is milk and rice based dessert with dried fruits, mostly raisins, and nuts, usually cashews and almonds. It also contains spices such as saffron and cardamom. As it was mentioned, the recipe can have many variations; and so you can put in it whichever dried fruit and nuts you prefer (dates, figs, unsalted or sweetened peanuts, walnuts etc).

Sabudana is tapioca, and Sabudana Kheer's recipe is not much different than tapioca pudding recipe. If you know how to to make tapioca pudding, you are already qualified for making this exotic dessert! However, if you have never made this dessert so far, follow these easy tips to make it. What is very important is the ratio of milk, sugar and tapioca which should be equal to 1/2 cup of tapioca and 1/2 cup of sugar for 3 cups of milk. Sugar is, of course, optional in case you do not tolerate it well. In case omitting it, you can add a spoon or two of tapioca more. What is special about this dessert are exotic flavors of dried coconut (coconut flakes), dried fruits and nuts as well as spices such as saffron, cardamom, vanilla etc. Pick the optional ingredients you love the most and enjoy your Sabudana Kheer! We encourage you not to omit coconut flakes :)

Here are the steps to make a perfect Sabudana Kheer!

1° Rinse tapioca pearls - then let them soak for about 20 minutes in a pot.

2° Once the pearls are half transparent, take 3/4 of the water out of the pot and add milk and sugar.

3° Cook on a low or lower medium heat while stirring at the same time! Do so until tapioca pearls become completely transparent. If they have whitish core, they will be "chewy". This will take about 20 minutes but it is worth it! Moreover, it is very important you pay attention the milk does not come to boil. If you see that coming, immediately lower the temperature of the heat.

4° Add coconut flakes, fruits, nuts and spices you picked for this dessert and add them all together around 3-4 minutes before you are done or the dessert achieved desired thickness.

One more thing we want to emphasize is that this dessert is a perfect Ekadashi treat and is very often consumed during fasts in India. Tapioca is also well-known to help with digestive problems such as diarrhea or constipation - it absorbs water but is also jelly-like. Here you can learn more about Ekadashi.

Enjoy! :)

Let us know how it turned out!