Indian sweets are considered healthy and tasty. You can always indulge in them without feeling guilty. Rabri or rabdi just like many Indian sweets uses milk as its main ingredient. It is famous in Northern India. You can use it as a standalone dish or combine it with other sweet dishes like gulab jamun, shahi tukda, jalebi or malpua. In Southern India, basundi is known to be similar to rabri. However, rabri’s consistency is thicker than basundi.
If you want to save time from cooking the milk, you can use condensed milk. Another alternative is cornstarch. You can add it to the milk to thicken it. However, you may not get the authentic taste if you use either of these techniques.
This Rabri Recipe stores well. You can store it in a storage container and eat later, and it will still taste as delicious as freshly prepared.
Health Benefits
- Milk, the main ingredient in rabri, has numerous health benefits. Many of which are known to all. It provides calcium, useful for healthy bones and teeth. It is filled with essential minerals and vitamins, including vitamin A, which is very crucial to maintain our immune system.
- Almonds also contain loads of healthy fats, fiber, protein, magnesium and vitamin E.
Ingredients
cups whole milk: 2
cup heavy cream: 1/2
cup sugar: 1
tsp ground cardamom: 1
tsp saffron strands: 1
tbsp almonds, sliced: 2
tbsp pistachios, shelled and crushed: 1
How To Make Rabri Recipe
- To a heavy bottomed pan, pour milk.
- Add sugar and bring to boil.
- Keep the cream to the sides of the pan.
- Reduce heat to medium and add the heavy cream.
- Keep moving the frothy cream layers towards the side of the pan.
- Keep stirring every few minutes. Do not let the milk burn.
- Add the ground cardamom and saffron strands.
- Allow milk to reduce to at least half its original quantity.
- Turn off the heat andlet it cool down.
- Pour the cooled rabrimixture into a bowl.
- Scrape all the cream stuck to the pan add this to the rabri mixture. Refrigerate for at least 30 mins.
- Garnish with almond slicesand crushed pistachios.
Trivia
- Rabri was banned in Kolkata for sometime during the years of milk scarcity because it uses a large quantity of milk.
- In 1444 any merchant caught selling impure saffron in Bavaria was burned alive.
- The rabri from Kolkata was probably being handed down from the rabri that originated from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.