Barley Carrot Kheer

1/4 cup Broken Barley
1 small carrot
11/2 cup milk(I used fat free)
3 table spoons sugar
3 cashews
extra milk to cook barley and carrots
few strands of saffron
1/8 tea spoon of crushed cardamom
few cashew nuts and raisins for garnish

The first step is to process the barley to a coarse rawa consistency. Please refer to my Instant Barley and Rawa Idli recipe. Next, the barley and the carrots have to be cooked. Take water and milk together equal to a cup in a vessel and add the barley rawa. You can use full measure of milk if you want. Chop the carrots into slices and take them in a vessel with milk just enough to cover them. Add the 3 cashews. Cook both of them together for about 10 minutes on low heat after a whistle or upto 2 to 3 whistles. In the meanwhile, boil the milk thoroughly in the microwave.

Once the pressure is released, take the carrots with the milk and grind into a smooth paste. You can add more milk if you want while grinding. Bring it to the stove top and cook until the raw smell is gone. Add the cooked barley to the carrot puree along with the boiled milk. Let this all blend together and come to a boil on a medium flame. Add the sugar and let it come to a boil again. The amount of sugar that I used was only 2 tbsps and was just the right amount as I served the kheer warm. This was quite enough to satiate my sugary taste buds. If it is going to be chilled before serving you would definitely need more sugar. That is the reason I put in 3 tbsp in the ingredients.

This kheer is going to get thicker in consistency as it cools down. If you want you can add an extra cup of milk to begin with itself. Just remember to adjust the sugar accordingly.

Garnish with some roasted cashew nuts and raisins(I prefer not to use raisins)

This recipe goes towards Wholesome Grain Cooking - Barley event of Sanjeetha.