Gur Payesh Recipe For Lakshmi Puja

Add as a preferred source on Google

Bengalis are famous for their sweets. Be it rasgullas or mishti doi, the Bongs sure know how to indulge one's sweet tooth. The Bengali payesh or kheer is also a dish that is very famous. Unlike the other sweets, this dessert can easily be prepared at home. The Bengali payesh recipe has special significance during Lakshmi Puja.

The Bengalis celebrate Kojagari Lakshmi Puja that comes two days after Vijaya Dashmi. On this day, the special Bengali gur payesh is served to Goddess Lakshmi as 'bhog'. The specialty of this dish is that jaggery is used to prepare it instead of sugar. Here is a recipe of gur payesh for Kojagari Lakshmi Puja.

Serves: 6
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• Milk- 2 litres
• Rice- 2 cups
• Jaggery- 2 cups
• Cardamom- 2 pods
• Ghee- 2tbsp
• Cashew nuts- 10 (soaked in water)
• Raisins- 10 (soaked in water)

Procedure

1. Take a large pot and boil milk in it. Keep boiling the milk until it bubbles.
2. Then add rice to the milk and continue boiling it until the milk reduces to half.
3. You need to stir the milk and rice constantly so that it doesn't thicken unevenly.
4. Now, add the powdered gur or jaggery to the pot and stir it in.
5. Continue stirring the contents of the pot constantly.
6. Meanwhile, heat ghee in a pan.
7. Saute the cashew and raisins in the pan for 2-3 minutes on a low flame until they start smelling good.
8. Add cardamom pods for flavour.
9. Garnish the gur payesh with fried cashew and raisins.

It is believed that if you keep the payesh under the moonlight of Kojagari purnima, it turns to 'amrit' or elixir.