Narali Bhaat

Narali bhaat or sweet coconut rice! There are so many sweet memories with this dish. Every birthday my mum made this delicious dish specially for me. The reason behind that was this festival called Rakhi Pornima. I was born on this festival so it was a tradition in my home to make this on this festival because my parents celebrated my birthday on this festival.

As we all know in India there are many festivals and every festival has its own special dessert. In the state of Maharashtra, the festival of Rakhi Pornima or Raksha Bandhan (where the sister ties a thread of love on  the brothers wrist) has this incredible, packed with fresh flavours dessert made of rice.

It’s called Sakhar Bhat (sweet rice) or Narali Bhaat(sweet coconut rice), it’s very easy to make and it’s very refreshing too!

So let’s get to the recipe.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• ½ cup basmati rice, washed and soaked for 10 minutes
• 1 ¼ cup hot water
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 2 cloves and 3 green cardamoms
• 1 tsp saffron mixed in 1 tsp milk
• 1.5 cup freshly grated coconut
• ¾ cup grated jaggery
• ¼ cup roughly chopped pistachios
• ½ cup roughly chopped almonds and cashew nuts
• ¼ cup raisins
• ¼ tsp black pepper and cardamom powder

Instructions:

In a pan heat 1 tsp ghee and fry the raisins, pistachios, almonds and cashew nuts till they are golden brown. Keep it aside.

In a heavy saucepan, heat ghee, add cloves and cardamoms. Sauté for 1 minute and add the drained rice. Parch the rice till it’s well coated well. Add hot water and cook the rice on a low flame.

After the rice is cool enough to handle, mix the coconut and jaggery.

Put it back on the gas, add the saffron, black pepper and cardamom powder. Cover the lid and keep it on the low flame for 10 minutes. Stir it with very light hands once or twice.

Add the nuts and raisins and cover for another 5 minutes.

Serve hot!