Paneer Kheer and Diwali Wishes!

I'm a believer in finding excitement even in trivial stuffs. I keep looking for reasons to celebrate even if there doesn't seem to be one. Actually this is a quality that we all sisters share in our family. We have a good time even if we get together for some time and switch ourselves to a celebration mode. One of the many advantages of growing up with 3 sisters is instant entertainment! Our house was never quiet when we grew up and no one was never alone at home. I remember those lively evenings at hour house, after we come back from school/colleges everyday. Dinner time was the time for all of us to catch up on everyone's news. Each one of us had a story to share from our school and college everyday. And the interesting part was, mom used to actively participate in these conversations! She never gets bored with our silly stories and even with our so called "complains" about school. And in fact, she maintained and still maintains the same kind of relationship with all our friends who visit our place. That's one of the reasons that our home was the regular meeting place for a number of friends.

Now after many years, while everyone has spreaded out from home and live in remote places, I can sense the silence in our house. Mom and dad especially can sense it often and every now and then they express about it when we converse over phone. Diwali is one such occasion that we all miss terribly. Naturally, its wonderful to celebrate Diwali! Wearing new clothes, oil bath, fire crackers, special programs in TV and best of all delicious food and yummy sweets... Hmm, I really wish I was in India for Diwali every year and enjoy as much as possible, but unfortunately, that isn't the case. Its been years since we celebrated Diwali together as a family in India.

Well, change is inevitable and we all know about it. And fortunately that same quality still continues in us and often we catch-up over phone nowadays. We do our three-way/conference calls to get everyone on line and have fun talking about many things. Surprisingly even now, we never get tired of our never ending chitchats. Also, when we visit India everytime we make sure we celebrate every little occassion to make it a pleasurable experience.

A couple of days before I successfully finished a mini home project and I felt that I deserved a pat on my back. Perhaps because of the way I was brought up, I still find reasons to rejoice even in day-to-day minor happenings. So, I made this Paneer Kheer! This kheer is a winner in our family. Especially if my daughter loves it, then it has to be a real winner! I happened to read this recipe from a cookbook recently and I made it for the first time a couple of days before when I had to finish off the left over paneer in my freezer. After a while, I was enjoying this delicious kheer and I just loved it so much that I had 3 servings (yes, I am a dessert freak!) continuously and almost finished it before my hubby and daughter had even tasted it. As a result, I had to make more paneer at home the same night and made this kheer again the next day. All of them loved it as much as I did! I have to tell you its evil and rich :) Quite similar in taste to Basundi, but takes much lesser time than Basundi.

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY DEEPAVALI!

Ingredients:

• Condensed Milk - 1/2 can
• Whole Milk - 3 cups
• Grated Paneer - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1/2 cup (or as required)
• Cardamom - crushed - 1 tsp
• Ghee - 1 tbsp
• Cashews and raisins - a few

Procedure:

• Heat the whole milk in a wide pan and let it boil.
• Add the condensed milk and stir well. Let it boil and taste for sugar. If the sweetness from the condensed milk is not enough, you can add 1/2 cup sugar and stir it gently.
• Cover and boil in low heat for about 10 - 15 mins.
• The mixture should not be too watery and should be like any other kheer texture.
• Now add the grated paneer, crushed cardamoms and boil for 10 more mins in low heat.
• Finally add Cashews and raisins after roasting in ghee.
• Remove from heat and let it rest for an hour.

Serve warm or chilled.