Kheer is the subcontinental name for sweet milk pudding usually made with rice, although it can also be made with fine noodles called saviyaan, or semolina, carrots or sage.
Take a look: Food Stories: Saviyaan
The people of the subcontinent have grown up eating kheer from baked clay earthen bowls, colloquially referred to as mitti key katoree .
Offshoots of kheer Kheer is sometimes also referred to as sheer , which means milk in Persian. It probably originated in Persia, where a similar dessert is known as sheer birinj (rice pudding).
There are many flavour variations in kheer, featuring the subtle or sharp essence of raisins, cardamom, cinnamon, almond, pistachio, saffron, kewra, and rose water. For special occasions, it is customary to decorate the chilled kheer with an edible silver or gold leaf called chandi kay warq .
According to the Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson, the Persian version sheer birinj was originally thought to be the food of angels. Sheer birinj, usually, has no added sugar and is laced with honey or jam for added sweetness.
See: Food Stories: Sheer Khurma
The Middle Eastern region has a similar sweet dish called firni . It seems to have originated in ancient Persia or the Middle East and was introduced to the subcontinent by the Mughals and is now a popular dish in the South Asian region.
Alan Davidson — in The Oxford Companion to Food — defines firni as:
"A sweet milky dessert, to be eaten cold, made either with corn-flour or rice flour or sometimes both, and usually flavoured with rose water and/or ground cardamom. The dish is decorated with chopped or ground almonds or pistachio nuts."
Another off-shoot of kheer is sholah-e-zard , which is a sweet yellow rice pudding. The main ingredient is short-grain rice, cooked and thickened to softness in milk.
Having religious significance, it is made on the 10th day of Muharram (the Muslim month of mourning); and also made as nazr , which is a custom of thanksgiving, or pledge practiced in Iran and Afghanistan.
When cooked for nazr , sholah is cooked and distributed among the poor, neighbours and relatives.
Food historian K.T. Achaya in his book, A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food, says the following about celebratory kheer:
"Kheer is a sweet rice confection. When prepared as a ritual food, the rice is first lightly fried in ghee before boiling with sweetened milk until thickened. Kheer made with jowar is mentioned in the fourteenth century Padmavat of Gujarat, and other cereal products (vermicelli, cev, pheni) may be used as well."