Fereni – Persian Rice Flour Pudding

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The IFC successfully completes its one year! It definitely calls for a celebration, doesn’t it? Considering that last month was the anniversary month, group members were provided with a list of favorites recipes from various cuisines that were tried over this one year and were given a chance to select that fancies our attention. I have already mentioned earlier in my very first IFC challenge, the Dampfnudels that it was the Iranian cuisine challenge that prompted me to join this group, so I eagerly skittled into the list to see if there was any, and yes, there I saw what I really wanted to make – the Fereni!!!

Fereni is a Persian milk based pudding, thickened by rice flour. This is so similar to the Phirni that we make, but which is made with crushed rice, not to mention it almost tastes like a cousin of the Arabic dessert, Muhallabia. After all, some of Indian and Pakistani cuisine does have a heavy influence from Persian cuisine and vice versa. It was Savitha who had hosted the Iranian cuisine challenge, so after going through her recipe, I went on to read a few tips from other bloggers to better the process. I found that the consistency of the fereni differs as per individual liking. If you want it more thick, add more rice flour – as simple as that! Finally, I referred here and here and made up my fereni. Do refer to the notes below for better results! This is the recipe that I had cooked and clicked when I was on vacation, so I had quite a bit of my relatives to test-taste it, and Alhamdulillah, it was well accepted, though the idea of a really simple dessert like this normally takes a little bit of time to digest! 🙂 Personally speaking, I loved it a lot, and I may find myself making this frequently, when I run out of ideas. As per the links I had read, this dessert is served to a person down with flu, so that becomes another reason to make it whenever I feel! Hehe… off to the way I made it…

 

PST: loved the feel of digging into umma’s vast collection of crockery that she had stacked over the years, especially that plate which had a very Iranian touch… hehe… 😉