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A traditional sweet rice pudding from Bihar, slow-cooked with fragrant rice, rich jaggery, and creamy milk. This comforting dessert, flavored with cardamom, is a festive favorite.
Prepare the Rice
Cook the Rice
Make the Jaggery Syrup
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A traditional sweet rice pudding from Bihar, slow-cooked with fragrant rice, rich jaggery, and creamy milk. This comforting dessert, flavored with cardamom, is a festive favorite.
This bihari recipe takes 60 minutes to prepare and yields 4 servings. At 496.15 calories per serving with 10.48g of protein, it's a moderately challenging recipe perfect for dessert.
Simmer with Milk
Combine Jaggery and Milk (Crucial Step)
Finish and Thicken
Garnish and Serve
Add a few strands of saffron (kesar) to the warm milk for a beautiful color and fragrant aroma.
Incorporate other nuts like pistachios or walnuts for a different texture and flavor profile.
Add a tablespoon of raisins or chopped dried figs along with the milk for natural sweetness and chewiness.
For a different regional flavor, add 2-3 tablespoons of freshly grated coconut during the final simmering stage.
The combination of carbohydrates from rice and simple sugars from jaggery provides a quick and sustained source of energy, making it a fulfilling dessert.
Made with a generous amount of milk, this dish is a good source of calcium, which is essential for strong bones and teeth.
Unlike refined sugar, jaggery is unrefined and retains minerals like iron, magnesium, and potassium, which contribute to overall health.
The use of ghee and nuts provides healthy fats, including monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids, which are beneficial for heart and brain health.
This is the most common issue. Milk curdles when hot milk comes into contact with jaggery, which can be slightly acidic. To prevent this, you must let both the cooked rice-milk mixture and the jaggery syrup cool down to a warm (lukewarm) temperature before mixing them together.
Yes, you can use sugar, but it will change the authentic taste, color, and aroma of the dish. Jaggery provides a unique, molasses-like flavor. If using sugar, add it directly to the simmering milk and cook until it dissolves.
A short-grain, aromatic rice like Gobindobhog is traditionally used and gives the best texture and fragrance. If unavailable, you can use other short-grain rice varieties or even broken basmati rice.
One serving of Bihari Arna contains approximately 525 calories. This is an estimate and can vary based on the exact ingredients used, such as the fat content of the milk and the type of jaggery.
Bihari Arna is a traditional dessert and is rich in calories, carbohydrates, and fats, making it a good source of energy. While jaggery offers more minerals like iron and magnesium compared to refined sugar, and milk provides calcium, it should be enjoyed in moderation as part of a balanced diet, especially on festive occasions.
Yes, you can make a vegan version. Replace the full-fat dairy milk with a creamy plant-based milk like full-fat coconut milk or cashew milk. Substitute the ghee with coconut oil or a vegan butter substitute.