Firni ground rice pudding Recipe with apple compote and rose petals

This recipe is from Sumayya Usmani and reproduced with her kind permission. Sumayya is passionate about teaching traditional and contemporary Pakistani cooking and holds classes across the UK.

“If there is one emotion that is conjured up every time I recall my Nani’s kitchen – the feeling of complete safety – one that isn’t usually synonymous with a kitchen! But it was the aromas, the warmth and the love with which the food was prepared in her tiny kitchen that would be the only time I remember feeling protected, at home and truly adored. There isn’t one occasion I can remember where my Nani didn’t make me this simple ground rice pudding called Firni. Such a staple on a Pakistani dessert menu but there always is something comforting about the earthy sweet scent of rice cooking with hot milk, with the essence of rose water and cardamom bringing the simplicity of the rice to life. The smell would waft through the kitchen into the warm veranda where we would wait for this with salivating palates only to devour this (then cooled), silky yet grainy pure aromatic sugar rush that would have probably left my parents wishing they hadn’t’ sent me to grandmas, but was it worth every stolen moment, every moment of feeling complete utter love from someone who was forever nurturing just like her sweet rosy dessert.

Something borrowed from Persian traditions of simple yet aromatic rice based desserts, this version with the addition of the nuttiness of ground almonds adds earthiness and elegance. This is a simple recipe, one that resonates the dessert culture of Pakistan, that of combining grain, sugar and spice. I have added an apple cinnamon compote, something I picked up from my time in England – compotes reign a winter dessert, there’s nothing quite like warm gooey fruit on a cold frosty day. Firni, traditionally served at many weddings or at roadside restaurants, topped on special occasions with edible silver leaf, in unglazed terracotta pots, which are used as you would disposable crockery – it’s the raw terracotta that adds a distinct flavour to the dessert, it’s like you can taste the earth, the land of Pakistan itself – the aroma you breath in after a Monsoon shower, the humid earth in all it’s glory…. it is that taste on my palate that transports me home to a happy, cherished time. However you serve this, it is the purity and elegance of this dessert that makes you crave this homely sweetness every time…