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Cardamom Kheer

5.0

(6)

A serving of rice pudding in a bowl topped with crushed pistachios and edible flowers.
Photo by David Loftus

I take a bite of this sweet rice pudding and I am back at my parents’ house at Diwali. They’ve just been dancing. Arya is eighteen months old, playing with the dancing stick and shrieking with laughter. One more spoonful, and she’s six months old and just learning to eat; she doesn’t wrinkle her nose at a simple kheer made with apples. A couple more spoonfuls and it’s 2015, I’m in Bademiya in Mumbai, it’s 2 a.m. and Hugh’s just arrived. I’ve been away from him for weeks again, traveling to research recipes for Fresh India. I missed him so much I could barely eat, but now he’s here and the kheer tastes like sweet celebration. Another spoonful and I’m six again, struggling to fit in at a new school. I don’t tell Mum, but perhaps she knows because there’s kheer for pudding and it tastes like home.

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