Bengali payesh recipe (Bengali chaler payesh) with step-by-step pictures. Bengali Payesh is a Bengali birthday special sweet dish or dessert of rice prepared at every home in Bengal.
Bengali Payesh is a sugary concoction of flavourful rice & milk flavoured with cardamom and bay leaves. Apart from West Bengal & Bangladesh, this Bengali sweet dish is popularly known as rice kheer(in Hindi language)or Payasam (in South Indian languages).
Bengali payesh is quite different from other Indian rice desserts like rice kheer or payasam. Just because payesh is made with special flavourful rice named gobindo bhog chaal. Instead gobindo bhog rice, good quality flavored basmati rice also can be used. However, fine & flavourful rice is a must for making Bengali payesh. Apart from flavourful rice,full cream milk & sugar are 2 must-used ingredients for making this sweet dish. According to Bengali tradition, payesh is generally prepared with sugar or chini. Though, except for this chini’r payesh we have a separate gurer payesh recipe if you want to replace the sugar with gur.
For making Bengali payesh, first rice needs to be washed, then soaked in water for 30 minutes. Then boil one-liter full-fat milk with crushed cardamoms and bay leaves or tej pata for another 30 minutes. Later, soaked rice should be added to boiled milk and cooked the rice until soft. Later, adding sugar and cooking with rice and milk helps absorption. Lastly, add dry fruits, after cooking for a little while, this chaler payesh will be ready to eat.
In our Bengali cuisine, several payesh recipes are there. However, this chaler payesh (chaal = rice) is prepared to celebrate any Bengaliauspicious days like birthdays, rice ceremonies (annaprashan), and upanayana(thread ceremony in English).According to our Indian culture, a birthday is incomplete without this sweet kheer. Payesh is tagged as a Bengali homemade birthday special rice dessert good to serve after lunch or dinner.
According to Bengali tradition,at a rice ceremony or annaprashan(when a baby, for the first time, eats rice), serve payesh with food. Even this homemade sweet dish is also served with our pujar bhoger khichuri or bengali khichdi recipe.
For making a quick Bengali payesh, once the rice gets soft or cooked well, instead of slow cooking, you can add mawa or khoya kheer or condensed milk or milkmaid in milk to get a thick consistency.
Bengalis believe payesh tastes scrumptious if it is served cold. Old people say payesh goes awesome with luchi or bengali poori, though I have never tasted this sweet dish that way.
You may try other Bengali desserts from my website
- Rabri recipe, Dudh puli recipe, Patishapta recipe, Bengali malpua recipe, Kulfi malai ice cream recipe
You may even try some of my Bengali sweet recipes
Sankh Sandesh recipe, Chocolate sandesh recipe, Mango sandesh recipe, chanar jilipi, narkel sandesh(chandrapuli) recipe
Bengali payesh recipe – Bengali birthday special sweet or dessert
Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 1 hr 10 min
Served in: 1 hr 15 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Bengali
Served for: 7-8 people
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients of Bengali payesh
- 1 lit Milk(Full fat or full cream)
- 1/4 cup Gobindo bhog rice/Basmati rice
- 6 tbsp Granulated Sugar
- 4 Green Cardamoms
- A handful of Raisins or Kismish
- 10-12 pcs Cashew nuts
- 2 pcs Bay leaves/Tej pata
How to make Bengali payesh recipe with step-by-step pictures
Instructions
- Take 1/4 cup of gobindo bhog rice, wash it 3-4 times. Soak it for 30 minutes with 1 cup of water.
- Turn on the heat and place 1 litre of milk(full-fat milk) on the medium flame.
- When the milk starts to boil, slow down the flame and maintain the flame at low to medium.
- In the meantime, add 2 bay leaves and 4 crushed green cardamoms to the milk.
- When the milk reaches its 3/4 of its actual amount, then strain the soaked rice and add it to the milk.
- Boil the rice in milk till it gets soft and easily mashes by pressing with fingers.
- While rice is cooking in the milk, stir the milk frequently, especially stirring its bottom.
- Then add kismis or raisins (soaked in water for 10 mins) and cashew nuts to the milk one by one.
- Mix it well.
- Just within one minute add the 6 tbsp sugar to it and mix it nicely.
- In this stage, stir well the bottom of the pan. And scrape the sides of the pan as required.
- Let the sugar completely melt down.
- Then keep it on the flame for 1 to 2 mins with continuous stirring and then turn off the heat.
- Or when it’ll be about half of its actual amount.
- Keep the pan in a place to make it completely cool down.
- Once cools down, serve this Bengali sweet dish payesh or rice kheer.
- Or serve it chilled, after reaching room temperature you may keep it in the refrigerator for 30 mins to 1 hr before serving. You may serve with luchi(poori) or muri(puffed rice) too.
Important tips about Bengali chaler payesh
- Soaking rice is one of the important tricks, that soften the rice quickly
- If you don’t like bay leaves in this recipe, just skip this portion.
- Milk needs to boil till it gets thickened up and reaches its 3/4 amount. This is the most important part of this recipe, which makes it more creamy.
- From the beginning to the end of this recipe, continuous stirring is a must.
- Its consistency must be medium not too thin or too thick.
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