Phirni / Rice pudding

hiPhirni / phir nee / firni  is a traditional sweet,quite famous from the northern parts of india , tastes more or less like a kheer but this dish is thick & creamy in texture.Its usually chilled before serving in kasori's,a pot which is actually an earthenware bowl,the pot is washed and dried before hand ,then the phirni is filled and kept in refrigerators to be cooled.Its little grainy in texture,very rich dish and it happens to be a scrumptious dessert.

ingredients :
1 litre whole milk (  approx 4 - 41/4 cups full fat cream milk )
1/4 cup rice ( basmati rice is preferably )
1 cup sugar ( adjust more or less acc to your taste )
1/2 tsp crushed saffaron strands soaked in 1 tbsp of warm milk for half an hr.( optional )
1/2 tbsp rose water ( optional )
cardomon pwd to taste
few flakes of almonds,pistachios
method :
Wash and soak rice for half an hour.Boil milk on a slow flame for atleast 15 mins,keep stirring occassionally so that it does not stick to the bottom of your pan.Drain the rice and grind it into coarse powdery form .Add little milk ( say about 2-3 tsps ) to the grinded rice and mix to avoid any lumps.Add this rice mixture to the boiled milk and keep stirring for 1-2 mins  and take care that there are no lumps formed in the milk.Let the rice cook completely in the milk stirring occassionally now .Once the rice is cooked,quite tender and soft enough, add sugar, saffaron and cardomon pwd.Switch off the flame,add rose water,garnish with the nuts and chill in refrigerator or can also be served hot.