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AI-generated photograph: Rice payesh in a small cut glass bowl, creamy ivory pudding with a few raisins and bright green chopped pistachios on top, on a pale linen napkin

Home · Recipes · Bangladeshi rice payesh with cardamom

South Asian · Desserts

Bangladeshi rice payesh with cardamom

slow-cooked milk rice · green cardamom · pistachio

AI-generated photograph

Payesh is the creamy rice pudding made for celebrations in Bangladesh: rice cooked slowly in milk with cardamom and bay until thick and silky, with plump raisins and a scatter of pistachios. Lovely warm or chilled.

Contains: milk and tree nuts, as written. This recipe contains milk, from the whole milk, and tree nuts, from the optional pistachios. Some dried fruit is treated with sulphites, so check the raisin packet.

Ingredients

  • 60g basmati rice (or Bengali gobindobhog rice from a world foods shop)
  • 1.2 litres whole milk
  • 4 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 80g caster sugar
  • 30g raisins
  • 20g shelled pistachios, chopped, to finish (optional)

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Let's cook

  1. Rinse the rice in a sieve under cold water and leave it to drain.
  2. Pour the milk into a large, heavy pan (it needs room to bubble). Add the cardamom pods and bay leaf and bring it to the boil on a medium heat, stirring so it does not catch on the bottom. Watch it closely: milk boils over very quickly.
  3. Stir in the rice and turn the heat down so the milk bubbles gently. Cook for 45 to 50 minutes, stirring every few minutes and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan with a wooden spoon or spatula.
  4. It is ready for the sugar when the rice is completely soft and the milk has thickened to the texture of single cream and reduced by about a third.
  5. Stir in the sugar and raisins and cook for 5 minutes more. It will look a little thin, but it thickens as it cools.
  6. Take out the bay leaf and cardamom pods. Serve warm, or cool it quickly, cover and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Scatter the pistachios over just before serving.

Tips

  • A heavy pan and regular stirring stop the milk sticking and burning on the bottom.
  • Add the sugar only at the end: sugar added early stops the rice softening and makes the milk catch.
  • Cool leftovers quickly, keep them covered in the fridge and eat them within a day.

Swaps

  • Traditional sweetness: use 80g grated jaggery (unrefined cane sugar) or date palm jaggery from a world foods shop. Stir it in off the heat, as it can curdle hot milk.
  • Vegan: use 800ml unsweetened soya milk and a 400ml tin of coconut milk, and the pudding contains soya in place of milk.
  • Nut free: leave out the pistachios and top with a pinch of ground cardamom.

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