Matanjan is a traditional sweet rice dish from Sindhi cuisine, often made for special occasions like weddings, festivals, and Eid. It’s vibrant, aromatic, and rich, featuring saffron, cardamom, dried fruits, and sometimes even khoya or condensed milk.
Here’s a traditional Matanjan recipe:
🍚 Sindhi Matanjan (Sweet Rice) Recipe
📋 Ingredients:
- Basmati rice – 1 cup (soaked for 30 minutes)
- Sugar – 3/4 to 1 cup (adjust to taste)
- Water – 2 cups (for boiling rice)
- Milk – 1/2 cup (optional, for richer taste)
- Ghee – 3–4 tbsp
- Cardamom pods – 4–5 (lightly crushed)
- Cloves – 2–3
- Cinnamon stick – 1 small piece
- Saffron strands – a pinch (soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk)
- Yellow/orange food color – a pinch (or use natural saffron only)
- Raisins – 2 tbsp
- Chopped almonds & cashews – 2–3 tbsp
- Desiccated coconut – 1 tbsp (optional)
- Khoya or condensed milk – 2–3 tbsp (optional, for richness)
- Rose water or kewra water – 1 tsp (optional)
👩🍳 Method:
- Boil the rice:
- Boil soaked rice in 2 cups of water with 1-2 crushed cardamom pods and 2 cloves.
- Cook till 90% done. Drain and keep aside.
- Make sugar syrup:
- In a pan, mix sugar and 1/2 cup water (or milk for richness).
- Add saffron milk and food color.
- Heat until the sugar dissolves completely. No need for one-thread consistency.
- Prepare the nuts:
- In another deep pan or pot, heat ghee.
- Fry cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves.
- Add raisins, chopped almonds, and cashews. Fry for a minute.
- Add desiccated coconut if using.
- Assemble the Matanjan:
- Add the boiled rice to the ghee and nuts mixture.
- Pour sugar syrup evenly over the rice.
- Mix gently to coat the rice without breaking grains.
- Add khoya/condensed milk if using.
- Steam (Dum):
- Cover tightly and cook on very low heat for 10–15 minutes.
- Optionally place a griddle (tava) under the pot to avoid burning.
- Finish:
- Sprinkle kewra or rose water.
- Fluff gently before serving.
🌸 Serve warm, garnished with more nuts or silver leaf (warq) if desired.
Would you like a simplified version or a video tutorial link as well?