Notun Gurer Kheer New Jaggery Rice Milk Bengal

Ingredients

• 1.2 litres full-fat milk
• 1/4 cup gobindobhog or any short-grain rice — washed
• 2 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup notun gur (fresh date palm jaggery — available at Bengali grocery stores November to January; the most liquid and freshest variety is preferred; substitute: regular dark jaggery)
• 1/4 tsp cardamom

Method

1. Bring milk and bay leaves to a boil: Heat 1.2 litres full-fat milk with bay leaves in a wide heavy pot. Bring to a full boil.
2. Add the washed rice: Add the drained short-grain rice. Stir immediately.
3. Cook on medium heat for 40 minutes: Stir every 3 to 4 minutes. The milk reduces and thickens progressively as the rice cooks and starch releases.
4. Remove bay leaves: After 30 minutes, remove and discard the bay leaves.
5. Remove from heat when thickened: Once the milk has reduced by half and the rice is fully cooked and swollen, remove the pot from heat entirely. Allow to cool for 3 minutes. This cooling is essential — adding jaggery to boiling milk causes curdling.
6. Add the notun gur: Add the fresh date palm jaggery to the warm (not boiling) payesh. Stir gently as it dissolves and transforms the white payesh into a pale caramel-gold colour.
7. Add cardamom: Add cardamom. Stir.
8. Taste: The notun gur payesh should have a distinctive fragrance — like caramel with a faint smokiness and deep sweetness that refined sugar can never replicate.
9. Serve warm or chilled: Both are acceptable — Bengali practice varies by household.
10. Consume the same day: Notun gur payesh changes flavour rapidly — the fresh jaggery ferments slightly if kept overnight.
11. Note: Notun Gur (notun = new, gur = jaggery) refers to the first extraction of date palm sap each season — tapped from the trees in November and collected in clay pots before sunrise to prevent fermentation. This first-of-season jaggery is the most prized and most fragrant. The payesh made from notun gur is a once-a-year preparation that Bengalis anticipate for months. The fragrance of notun gur is described as the smell of winter in Bengal.