Kheer – Cheat’s Rice Pudding with Caramel Candy Swirls and Brown Buttered Walnut Crumbs in the Pakistani Manner

Cheat's Kheer

Rice dishes have always been a special treat in my maternal grandparents’ home. Most Punjabis eat a lot of flatbread, versus rice. My mother, being the daughter of Punjabi parents, has always preferred flatbread over rice. Despite the fact that she married into a family which devours rice on a daily basis – my father’s family is originally from Afghanistan – Ami loves her chapati, a Pakistani flatbread which beautifully puffs up like a balloon as it cooks over a naked flame.Read More

Poached Pears in Crème Anglaise

A Pudding-less Nairobi Reunion

Nairobi is where we learned to love safari parks and dislike zoos. We would take trips to the Nairobi National Park on most weekends, bobbing up and down on the inner roads in a Land Rover. As we peered out to look at the statuesque white- and caramel-jigsawed giraffe, we would eat sliced, plush, cinnamon loaf bread and cucumber sandwiches, prepared by our beloved cook, Simon Mackenzie, wrapped in tin foil. We would stop for a bit and drink dense and milky Kenyan tea out of flasks, hoping to spot a cheetah.Read More