Afghanistan Firnee, Almond & Cardamom Cream Pudding

Submitted by Bergy

"This is a delicious dessert but you may want to cut back a bit on the cardamom if you are not used to the flavor. To serve Firnee in the traditional manner, the pudding should be poured into two plates, decorat with the pistachio nuts and cut into wedges. This recipe is from "The Middle East Cookbook" By Tess Mallos"

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Serves: 6-8

ingredients

• 3 cups whole milk
• 1⁄3 cup white sugar
• 1⁄2 cup cornstarch
• 1⁄4 cup cold water
• 1⁄2 cup blanched almond, chopped
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1⁄4 teaspoon saffron thread (pounded to separate the threads)
• 1⁄4 cup pistachio nut, finely chopped

directions

1. Put 2 1/2 cups milk in a saucepan, add sugar and a pinch of salt heat slowly, stir to dissolve the sugar, Heat until warm.
2. Blend the corn startch into the remaining 1/2 cup of milk add to the warm milk, stirring constantly.
3. Add the almonds keep stirring until the mixture bubbles and thickens- Use a whisk if starts to becomes lumpy.
4. Add cardamom& Saffron, cook on low for 5 minutes- keep at a slow simmer.
5. Pour into 6-8 dishes, Sprinkle with pistachio nuts arouns the edges.

Reviews

[peabean26]

Way too much corn starch! The pudding came out like glue! The flavor is right for firnee, but the texture is all wrong. I would cut the corn starch down to 1/8 of a cup or less. <br/><br/>Too bad, because it's a great dessert, but this recipe ruins it with the corn starch.

 

[UmmBinat]

This is a comforting, nice, not too sweet pudding which DH, DD (toddler) and I ate warm. I love cardamom it's my favorite spice especially in sweets so of course I used the full amount. I used mostly rice milk and a little homemade almond milk I wanted to use up in place of the whole milk the first time and all rice milk the second time, both being good. I used a little less sugar than called for. Instead of cornstarch I used tapioca flour in equal amounts (It works the same), this was to be corn free. I used sliced blanched almonds rather than chopped as it was what I had on hand and they worked well and I would do so again. I did not cook it as long as stated after stirring in the saffron and cardamom. The chopped pistachios look nice on top. I served this as part of suhoor (breakfast before sunrise during Ramadan) I will definitely make this again.