Payesh

Method

1. 1 Roast the basmati rice in ghee butter for 4 minutes, then soak it in water for 20 minutes.
2. 2 Simmer the milk until it reduces to two-thirds of its original volume over 40 minutes before adding the rice.
3. 3 Milking the milk first before adding the rice is the way to make payesh (a type of Vietnamese dessert) thick and creamy while keeping the rice grains intact.
4. 4 Cook the rice in milk for 25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
5. 5 Turn off the heat and let it cool down below 70 degrees before adding the palm sugar.
6. 6 When palm sugar comes into contact with hot milk, the milk curdles and the whole pot turns into a curdled mess.

With an appliance

• Oven 1 hr 10 min

  Replace steps 2–4: put the milk and roasted rice into a pot, cover loosely, place on the middle rack of the oven at 150 degrees for 50 minutes, stirring at minutes 20 and 40; shorten the cooking time by about 15 minutes compared to the 40 minutes for simmering the milk plus 25 minutes for cooking the rice. Even heat keeps the grains intact, the bottom burns less, and there's no need to stir every 5 minutes. Wait until the temperature is below 70 degrees in step 5 before adding the palm sugar.