- Wash rice and soak it for about half an hour.
- Drain the water. Blend rice to a fine texture adding few spoons of milk as needed to blend. Add about 1/4 cup of milk to make batter with running consistency. Keep aside.
- Soak pista in hot water for at least 10 minutes. Drain the water and rub the pista with a paper towel, removing the skin, and dry them. Slice the pista and keep aside.
- Boil the milk on heavy bottom pan over medium high heat; wet the pan before adding the milk to avoid the milk burning at the bottom of the pan.
- After milk begins to boil, lower the heat to medium and let it simmer for about 12 minutes.
- Add rice to the boiling milk slowly while stirring continuously, making sure rice does not develop lumps. The milk will get thicker after a while. Let it boil for about 3-4 minutes stirring continuously.
- Add sugar, cardamom powder, saffron and pista, save about 1 tablespoon of pista for garnishing.
- Let it boil for another 4-5 minutes over low medium heat while stirring continuously, it will be consistency of thick batter. Turn off the heat.
- Empty the Phirni to a serving bowl while it is still hot, as Phirni starts getting thicker as it cools. Garnish with pista.
- Serve chilled!