Phirni Recipe (Firni)
Phirni recipe or a chilled bowl of Firni will surely make your day! It’s a popular Pakistani, Indian sweet dish or pudding prepared with soaked and ground basmati rice, milk, sugar, saffron (zafran), seasoned strongly with green cardamom, and rose water (Arq e gulab). Here I am preparing a traditional eid special zafrani phirni with a perfect creamy and smooth texture topped with pistachios and saffron. Here is step by step phirni recipe with video to make at home.
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Servings: 4 Persons
Calories: 160kcal
Ingredients
- ¼ cup Basmati Rice
- 20 strands Saffron (Zafran)
- 1 L Milk
- ½ cup sugar (white/brown)
- 1 cup Khoya optional
- 8 pods Green cardamom seeds
- ½ teaspoon Rosewater (Arq e gulab)
- 1 tablespoon Almonds
- 1 tablespoon Pistachios
Instructions
- Preparation of Rice: Properly wash basmati rice until it become clean and soak overnight to soften the rice grain.
- After soaking, fully drain the water and let it dry at room temperature. As the rice dried then coarsely ground using the grinder.
- Preparation of Saffron milk: add saffron strands in a cup of lukewarm milk and let it dissolve for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Phirni Cooking: In a pan, add milk and let it boil. Now add soaked rice in boiling milk and quickly stir to avoid lumps formation.
- Continuously stir the pan on low heat until the rice becomes soft and fluffy and makes a thick creamy texture.
- Then add saffron milk, sugar, cracked cardamom seeds or powder, khoya, and rose water. Give it a good mix to make a homogenous texture.
- Cook on low heat and monitor the thickness of phirni, if it seems semi thick then remove from heat and quickly pour in the bowl to maintain a smooth texture.
- Garnish with pistachios and almonds! As the phirni comes at room temperature then keep in the refrigerator to get chilled bowls right before serving.
Notes
- Rice and milk proportions need to be balanced to make a perfect phirni texture. If milk is more than water then the firni might be runny and if the milk is less then it becomes hard. So make sure everything is well balanced to get the creamy and smooth texture of firni.
- Use a rubber spatula to stir the firni while cooking.
- The stainless steel pan is ideal to cook phirni.
- During cooking, make sure the firni should not stick to the bottom as it will leave a burnt taste.
- To add sugary flavor in phirni, brown sugar, white granulated sugar or jaggery can be used.
- Full fat cow milk is good to make phirni. If making gluten-free then add almond milk. Alternatively, condensed milk can be used.
- Double the quantity of saffron if you are making zafrani phirni. It has slight yellow and light brown shade. If you don’t have rose water (arqe gulab) then use kewra essence.
- Use your favorite nuts in phirni mixture or just used to serve on top.
Nutrition
Calories: 160kcal