Why does kheer curdle when I add jaggery?

Jaggery is slightly acidic and milk at a boil splits when it meets it. Cook the rice fully in the milk, take the pan off the heat, wait 8 to 10 minutes and then stir the gur in.

When should I add jaggery to kheer?

At the very end, after the rice is soft and the pan has been off the heat for a few minutes. Do not boil the kheer after the gur has gone in.

How much jaggery for 1 litre of milk kheer?

Half a cup of jaggery powder, about 100 g, for 1 litre of milk and ¼ cup of rice. Go up to ¾ cup for a sweeter kheer.

What is rasiya or rasiyaw?

The gur ki kheer made for Kharna, the second day of Chhath Puja, in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. It is offered after sunset and eaten with roti.

Gur ki kheer, the rice kheer sweetened with jaggery

गुड़ की खीर

Rice cooked slowly in milk and sweetened with gur once the pan is off the fire. The kheer of Chhath Kharna, and the one rule that stops the milk from splitting.

A brass bowl of caramel-coloured gur ki kheer topped with slivered nuts, beside a small bowl of jaggery powder — Representative image of the dish.

Chhath Kharna and winter evenings · Prep 5 min · Cook 50 min · Total 1 hr 25 min · Makes 4 to 5 bowls · North Indian dessert

On Kharna, the second day of Chhath, the day-long fast ends after sunset with one dish: kheer made with rice, milk and gur, eaten with roti. In Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh it is called rasiya or rasiyaw. The rest of the winter it is simply gur ki kheer, and many north Indian homes prefer it to the white one.

The trouble everyone has with it is the trouble they have with gur ki chai: the milk splits. The fix is the same too. The gur goes in after the pan has left the fire.

Why the milk splits

Jaggery is slightly acidic. Milk that is boiling hard curdles when it meets it, and a kheer that has curdled cannot be put back together. So the rice is cooked in the milk first, all the way. The pan comes off the heat and rests for a few minutes. Only then does the gur go in, and after that the kheer is never boiled again.

Ingredients

¼ cup (about 50 g) Short-grain rice
1 litre Full-cream milk
½ cup (about 100 g) ShuddhGaon jaggery powder
4, powdered Green cardamom
1 tsp Ghee
1 tbsp each Cashews and raisins

Method

Wash and soak the rice Wash the rice until the water runs clear, soak it for 20 minutes and drain it.
Boil the milk Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy, wide pan, stirring so that it does not catch at the bottom.
Cook the rice in the milk Add the rice, lower the flame and simmer for 35 to 40 minutes. Stir every few minutes and scrape the sides back in. It is ready when a grain crushes easily between two fingers and the milk has thickened to about two-thirds of what you started with.
Take it off the heat and wait Move the pan off the stove and leave it for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. It should be hot, not bubbling.
Stir in the jaggery Add the jaggery powder a few spoons at a time, stirring until each addition disappears. The kheer will turn the colour of milky tea.
Finish it Stir in the cardamom. If you are using cashews and raisins, fry them in the ghee until golden and tip them in.
Serve, and do not boil it again Serve it warm, or chill it. To reheat, warm it gently on the lowest flame and take it off before it simmers.

With our jaggery

Powder is the form for kheer: it dissolves in hot milk in seconds, so there is no syrup to make and nothing to strain. If you only have our cubes or a block, melt 100 g with 2 tablespoons of water in a small pan, strain it, let it cool until it is just warm and then stir it in. Our gur is not bleached, so the kheer will be a shade of caramel rather than white, and a darker pack gives a darker kheer.

Tips from our kitchen

If it has split anyway Do not throw it away. Cook it down on a low flame, stirring, and it becomes a grainy sweet rather like kalakand, good eaten warm.
Take it off looser than you want it Kheer thickens as it cools. A pan that looks right on the stove will be stiff in the bowl.
For Kharna Many families cook the prasad in a freshly scrubbed pan with nothing but rice, milk and gur. Follow the custom of your own house.

Questions people ask

Why does kheer curdle when I add jaggery?: Jaggery is slightly acidic and milk at a boil splits when it meets it. Cook the rice fully in the milk, take the pan off the heat, wait 8 to 10 minutes and then stir the gur in.
When should I add jaggery to kheer?: At the very end, after the rice is soft and the pan has been off the heat for a few minutes. Do not boil the kheer after the gur has gone in.
How much jaggery for 1 litre of milk kheer?: Half a cup of jaggery powder, about 100 g, for 1 litre of milk and ¼ cup of rice. Go up to ¾ cup for a sweeter kheer.
What is rasiya or rasiyaw?: The gur ki kheer made for Kharna, the second day of Chhath Puja, in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. It is offered after sunset and eaten with roti.

Worth reading alongside this

The jaggery this recipe is made with

ShuddhGaon Jaggery Powder Pouch — The same fine gud powder in resealable 500 g and 1 kg zip pouches
ShuddhGaon Jaggery Powder — Fine gur shakkar that melts into tea, coffee and milk
ShuddhGaon Jaggery Combo — Cubes for the cup, powder for the kitchen

More recipes with gur

All jaggery recipes