Camp Kheer with Cardamom and Cashews
Instant rice, milk powder, and cardamom cooked down into a stove-top pudding.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 4 oz
- cal / oz
- 155
- protein
- 14 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 350 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant rice | 1/2 cup | the precooked kind, not parboiled |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk powder | 1/3 cup | whole, not nonfat, or it comes out thin |
| Sugar | 3 tbsp | |
| Ground cardamom | 1/4 tsp | |
| Raisins or chopped dates | 2 tbsp | |
| Cashews | 2 tbsp | broken up in the bag before you leave |
| Ghee | 1 tbsp | shelf-stable, carry in a small screw-top tin |
| Salt | a pinch |
Method
- Melt the ghee in the pot over low heat and toast the cashews until they smell nutty. About a minute. Tip them onto a lid and set aside.
- Add 350 ml of water to the same pot and bring it to a boil.
- Stir in the instant rice and the raisins. Cover, kill the heat, and wait four minutes.
- Sprinkle the milk powder over the top a little at a time, stirring as you go. Dumping it in at once makes lumps you will not get out.
- Stir in the sugar, cardamom, and salt. Put it back on the lowest flame for a minute to thicken, stirring the whole time so the bottom does not scorch.
- Top with the cashews and eat warm. It thickens further as it cools.
Kheer is a milk pudding simmered for an hour, which is an hour of fuel nobody carries. This version gets to the same place by boiling the rice in water first and building the milk back in at the end with whole milk powder. The powder rehydrates instantly and never has to sit over a flame, so there is nothing to scorch and no long simmer to pay for.
The ghee and the toasted cashews are doing most of the calorie work, and the cardamom is what makes it read as kheer rather than sweet rice. Toast the nuts first in the same pot you cook in — it costs one minute and one less thing to wash.
Packing
Rice, sugar, cardamom, salt, and raisins go in one bag at home. Milk powder rides in its own bag so it stays dry and lump-free. Cashews and ghee separate.
Variations
- Swap the rice for broken vermicelli if gluten is not a concern. Toast it in the ghee first and you have semiya payasam.
- A spoonful of instant coffee turns the leftovers into a cold drink the next morning.
- Skip the cashews entirely and add another tablespoon of dates for the same calories.
https://www.awesomecuisine.com/recipes/10134/best-indian-sweets