• Yield: Serves 4

  • Time: 5 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking, 45 minutes total


Steamed Milk with Pistachio Nuts and Almonds (Pista-Baadam Paal)

Ingredients

  • 8 cups whole milk

  • 1/4 cup raw pistachio nuts

  • 1/4 cup blanched almonds

  • 4 teaspoons sugar

Instructions


1. In a large, wide-rimmed saucepan or Dutch oven, bring the milk to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Continue cooking the milk down, for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping the sides of the pan to release the collected milk solids, until it is reduced to 4 cups.


2. In a food processor, pulse the pistachio nuts and almonds until they are the texture of coarsely ground black peppercorns.


3. Stir the nuts and sugar into the reduced milk.


Adapted from The Turmeric Trail: Recipes and Memories from an Indian Childhood by Raghavan Iyer (St. Martin's Press, 2002). Copyright 2002 by Raghavan Iyer.

Raghavan Iyer is a cookbook author, writer, culinary educator, spokesperson and consultant. He is the author of several cookbooks, including The Tumeric Trail, a 2003 James Beard award finalist for Best International Cookbook. His articles have appeared in publications such as Cooking Light, Fine Cooking, Saveur, Weight Watchers Magazine, Cooking Pleasures and Gastronomica. He received the IACP's Award of Excellence for Cooking Teacher of the Year in 2004, and was a finalist for the 2005 James Beard journalism award. He is co-founder of the Asian Culinary Arts Institutes, Ltd.