Orange Rice Kheer
Through the month of absolute chaos from a work front, I conveniently forgot to do my favourite blog of this month and every month— highs and lows! So let’s get started:
Highs
Natasha became a Maverick! Haha so fun story, Natasha was transitioning from her role at Nicobar to a boutique comms agency that was hiring her for social media work. I loved this industry shift. Two days before her move to this new company, my company won a major project that needed a lot more resources in both social media and video production. My boss jumped on the opportunity and offered a role to Natasha and the rest was history. I am so happy to have her become a part of the best workplace I have ever been in. Could we be more co-dependent? Hahaha.
While work has been a crazy dumpster fire, my family planned a little trip for December. We will be one of the many basic fools who will be spending five days in Goa to celebrate my parents’ 30th anniversary! Can’t wait to make some fun travel content for all of you.
Through the last month, Natasha and I also attended a nutrition program. Run by an old friend and literally the fittest human I know, Nakul taught us about the various factors and stimuli that affect our nutrition. Now, there are a bunch of things I knew already thanks to mom but hearing and actually practising it through another party actually worked really well. Things that I do to date: Find ways to consume more water, fish capsules, and push myself to sleep more than I do today. Thank you Nakul for a true gem of a program!
Lows
Content engagement has taken a big hit. Now, this usually doesn’t matter much to me but given the amount of effort we put into this Diwali campaign, it would have been great to see some growth. C’est la vie I guess.
While I loved having Natasha join The Mavericks, she got with her one really hectic client. We worked on a project for a gruelling month with some of the craziest deadlines. While we really worked some ungodly hours, the work we produced was phenomenal. In many ways, this is as much of high as it was low, hey!
Okay, let’s talk about this beautiful dish — This orange-infused kheer is a flavour bomb! As much as I was scared about making such a sacred dish (fun fact: kheer is a classic Indian recipe that dates back to 2000 years!), it was so much fun to see milk and rice turn into some of this yummy mush of perfume and texture. Pro tip: Add the orange zest at the end and let it refrigerate. This adds the flavour and aroma of oranges without running the risk of souring or curdling the milk! I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you do make it, share pics on my Instagram. Happy cooking <3
Glimpses from the week
Recipe
Ingredients
1/4 cup rice
1 litre milk
6 tbsp granulated sugar
Zest and segments of one orange
Almonds (optional)
Cardamom powder
Pinch of saffron strange
Raisins (optional)
Pinch of salt
Method
Wash the rice and soak it for at least 30 minutes. Strain and keep.
Boil the milk in a saucepan on very low heat.
When the milk starts to get warm, take out one tablespoon and mix it into the saffron. Then place it aside
Once the milk reaches a boil, add in the strained rice and cook it on low heat. Stir it every 5-10 minutes to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Once the rice has softened, add in the sugar. Now you have to wait really patiently for the kheer to start thickening up. This will take a long time, but leave the gas on low and wait. Stir every now and then, till the quantity of the kheer reduces to half.
Finally, add in cardamom powder, the saffron mixture, and a pinch of salt. Then mix in the raisins and/or almonds and let the kheer sit out at room temperature. (I left it out for two hours because I went off the watch THE BEST F1 RACE EVER no regrets) because it leaves you with the most delicious kheer.
Top it off with orange zest and when you serve, add orange segments to it!
