Meethe Chawal Sweet Saffron Rice is a simple dessert made from readily available item at home, easy to cook and delicious to taste!! Tradition goes in my in-laws family to celebrate Dusshera with Meethe Namkeen Chawal. Sometimes having set items on certain days, creates a wonderful memory association with such festival celebrations. The intrinsic value of the dish suddenly increases due to its anticipation with the upcoming celebrations.
Sweet Rice is also found in Southern Indian Cusine in the form of Sweet Pongal, with slight variation. As in Southern Indian cuisine, there is a serving of sweet and spicy rice, here too, it is accompanied by Spicy Pulao also known as Namkeen Chawal. So the combination menu is “Meethe Namkeen Chawal accompanied with Yogurt Kadhi” on Dusshera day. Rice based sweet dishes are very popular from ancient times, as rice was staple grain, available in most households. Some people also call this chawal as Chasni Chawal as you reduce the sugar syrup (Chasni) to a certain level or Kesari Bhaat ( Orange Colored Rice- due to its saffron coating)
Saffron flavoured rice with the sweetness of sugar, and raisins, cardamom and pumpkin seeds sauted in ghee clarified butter, release an aroma that has a warm sweet fragrance. This is a unique combination that I instantly took liking to as I consider rice dishes as a celebratory meal.!! Various colors of spices, vegetables and dry fruits pop out against the spectacular long grains of white/yellow rice. Hence, I have always found rice dishes very appealing and it is no wonder that rice based dishes are popular across the globe. You can try all different kinds of nuts and dry fruits to your liking as they will all go well with this Sweet Rice.
India is the home for the world famous Basmati Rice – derived from Sanskrit word Vasmati – meaning Fragrant and no wonder that cooking and tasting Basmati Rice is a matter of joy and pride, when you see the extra long separate grain of each cooked rice!! In a lighter vein, international trade wars have been fought to reserve the patent of Basmati for India, as it is so inherent to the Indian continent and cuisine.
Cooking rice is almost an art, as you need to ensure that you get the maximum length of each grain of rice. Mostly when cooking rice for such special occasions, I prefer to use Basmati Rice and cook by boiling in lots of water instead of using a rice cooker. Some people like it sticky in which case any kind of rice and rice cooker cooking will work.
And in my perception, you can hardly go wrong with a rice based dish, whether it a dessert, or an entree and whether its for a young kid or old and whether you know someone’s taste preference or not!!
Enjoy this Meethe Chawal Sweet Saffron Rice with a Vegetable Pulao, or Spicy Rice of your choice. The way to eat this is to mix both the rice dishes and yogurt curry together- so that a little bit of sweet , a little bit of spice and little bit of yogurt satisfies the various taste buds in one go!
Recipe makes for 3 people
Preparation time: 20 min
Cooking time : 30 min
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 1 tbsp raisins
- 7-8 cloves
- 1/2 tbsp pumpkin seeds ( charoli magaz)- available in local Indian Grocery Stores
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- 10-15 strands of saffron
- 1 1/2 litre of water to cook rice
- couple of lemon drops for cooking rice.
- Optional – sliced -pine nuts, cashews, almonds
Method
- Wash the rice thrice and soak it in double the water for 20 minutes.
- Put one and half a litre water to boil in a broad and deep pan.
- Once the water boils, add the rice to cook, keeping it on medium to high flame.
- The rice should not settle down and should be always boiling and stir occasionally.
- In 15 min or so the rice should be cooked. When touched it should feel firm but cooked and each grain should be separate.
- Add a couple of lemon drops so it does not further overcook and keeps the grains from sticking to each other.
- Strain the cooked rice and spread it in a flat dish and allow it to cool.
- In a small bowl, take a tbsp of water and heat it for a minute.
- Add the saffron strands to it and crush gently after 2-3 minutes, to release the flavor and color.
- In a shallow container, melt the ghee, add the cloves pumpkin seeds, raisins, saffron water.
- Stir for a minute.
- Mix sugar and 1/2 cup water and dissolve all the sugar.
- Add this sugar mixture into the sauted nuts.
- Continue boiling over a medium flame for about 10-15 min.
- Keep a watch on the consistency of the sugar syrup and stir constantly as it may burn or become thick in seconds.
- When it reaches a thickness where you can see a drop forming from spoon, take off from heat.
- Gently mix the rice into the cooked sugar syrup.
- Heat over a slow- medium flame for 4-5 min.
- Serve warm as a dessert or accompany with Namkeen Rice or Vegetable Pulao.
Tips
When washing the rice, do it gently so that the grains do not get crushed and instead of lemon you can add a drop of ghee or oil, to keep the rice grains separate after cooking. You can increase the ghee level if you want a little sticky/wet feel to this sweet rice. Adjust the sweetness to your taste.
Instinct Factor
Color of yellow to your choice- I like it a little less yellow so that it looks different from a normal vegetable rice or biryani. Long grain or short grain of rice to your choice.- I prefer the Kohinoor Brand Basmati Rice.
Feel Factor
When I first tasted the sweet rice, I was surprised, as in Gujarat this dish was not much heard of. So when I was treated to this combination of Meethe Chawal Sweet Saffron rice, I was being introduced to one more version of a delicious rice based dish.The saffron infused rice flavour along with spices and nuts gives richness to this dessert cum entree dish. This highly fragrant rice brings the warmth of festivities and as many agree food certainly opens up many doors to the heart! and it surely must be an item in a kings menu in ancient days!!
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