This one was a bit of a flop, but I'm sharing anyway

We got a gift certificate to an Indian restaurant here in town from one of my husband's business contacts so a couple weeks ago we went and ate really yummy Indian food. They brought us some kheer for dessert and the kids really liked it and have been asking me to make it at home since then. Kheer is a really sweet rice pudding that is made by cooking a small amount of rice in a lot of milk that has been sweetened with a couple of spices. I have made it before, and it takes a really long time of standing at the stove stirring and stirring and stirring and I didn't have time for that, so I thought I would try it in the slow cooker. I had some milk that was close to expiration, and my brother and his family were coming for dinner, so Wednesday was the day. I also wanted to make some substitutions to try and make it a bit healthier, and I think that was my downfall.

Here are my array of ingredients. I counted out the cardamom pods and the cloves so that I could pull them out again at the end. It's no fun to take a bite of kheer and get a clove when you least expect it. Milk, brown basmati rice (it's usually made with white rice), agave nectar (it's usually made with sugar or even sweetened condensed milk) and the spices.


I forget the exact measurements I used - I think it was 1 cup of rice and 5 cups of milk and 2/3 cup of agave. Whatever it was, it didn't turn out great so it probably doesn't matter anyway. I stirred everything together in the slow-cooker, turned it on, and left it for the day while I homeschooled the kids, did laundry, washed dishes, made lunch, made dinner, took kids to classes, talked on the phone, did laundry, made the bed, wiped a butt that wasn't my own, washed my hands, more homeschooling, etc. etc. etc. Get the picture? I wasn't standing over the stove and stirring and stirring so that the milk didn't burn on the bottom of the pot (that part comes later).

Here's my son with my newest niece. Isn't she cute? And he loved holding her, she wasn't as thrilled.


And my youngest and my older niece folding napkins to help set the table. My other daughter was at art class during all this excitement and got home just in time for dinner.


At some point during my dinner prep, I opened the slow cooker to taste the kheer and realized that there was no way it was going to be done in time. So I put it in a regular pot and put it on low on the stove to see if I could get it cooked to serve for dessert. At this point I also added some golden raisins to the pot because my brother said he liked it better that way.


But, it wasn't ready until about 9pm when my brother and family had gone home sadly dessert-less and my kids were in bed. But that meant I could enjoy a bowl in the quiet of my house. It actually ended up tasting pretty good, but it was way thicker than kheer usually is. I am not sure if that was because of the brown rice or what. I am not sure I will be making kheer again or not, maybe we will just go out to the Indian restaurant when we want some.