Lychee Kheer – Appearances can be deceptive

Appearances can be deceptive. What meets the eye may not always be the truth. We often make judgments on people or things by their outward appearances almost instantly. Recently I was on a train with my family where I saw a man sitting on a seat adjacent to ours. He had a serious countenance, grim expression and did not speak to anyone. All of a sudden, I noticed a strange object in his pocket, which resembled a.. a…(hush)….bommbbb?? Please don’t blame me. Agatha Christie and the News channels did this to me perhaps. I discretely pointed it to my husband and asked him if we should consider alerting the security. He asked me not to jump to conclusions and stopped me from doing that.

You can imagine how I spent the rest of the journey, keeping my eyes and ears open and sending silent prayers. An hour later ( which seemed like ages ), the train finally pulled up. I heaved a sigh of relief. But what followed after that made me embarrassed no end..

That man got up removed the suspicious object from his pocket, unfolded it and positioning it on the floor got off the train. Turns out he was a visually impaired man and that was his walking stick.Thank God and my husband for not letting me do anything which could have been insensitive. Appearances can really be deceptive. Lesson learnt!!  Hopefully, I will never ever judge people instantly.

The next day we attended a wedding where we got some more dose of deceptive appearances, in a lighter vein though..

We enjoyed the wedding ( I will post the pictures soon) with lots of entertainment and delicious food from different cuisines(vegetarian though).

When we returned home, I made this tasty creamy dessert with the summer fruit Lychee. As if my adventures were not enough, back home I got another dose of my lesson ‘Appearances are deceptive’ :)

My daughter’s seemingly innocent cat Fluffy:

Eyeing me and my Lychee dessert secretly:

I am sure my daughter and her Fluffy are never going to agree with me on this one :)

Well! Are you still interested in the recipe? You should be. Because all that looks creamy need not have cream in it. But all that looks delicious HAS to be delicious.

[recipe]

Ingredients:

• 1 tin Lychees drained (approx. 250 g)
• 2 tbsp. basmati rice
• 5 cups milk
• 1/2 cup sugar(more or less)
• 1/2 tin condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp. green cardamom powder
• few drops of vanilla/pineapple essence/rose water
• 2 tbsp. Lychee syrup/crush (optional)
• Almond and Pistachio slivers for garnish

Method:

Soak the rice for half an hour. Drain and pulse(grind) coarsely. Chop the lychees roughly keeping a few for garnish.Take milk in a deep, thick-bottomed pan and boil for ten minutes stirring continuously. Add the pulsed rice to the boiling milk and cook till rice granules are soft, making sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Add sugar and condensed milk.

Add the cardamom powder and essence.Now add chopped lychees and take off heat. Spoon the kheer in individual earthen bowls if available.Decorate with whole lychees and dry fruit slivers. Keep in the fridge to cool.

The hot kheer absorbs the aroma of the earthen bowls and makes it even more aromatic and flavorful.Enjoy chilled…

[/recipe]

I am taking this delicious chilled dessert to party with my FF friends. Thank you Angie@TheNoviceGardener for hosting this wonderful event week after week after week. Joining her is a new co-host Anna@AnnaInternational. Come and join me for lots of fun and excitement…