India, July 25 -- I have always loved dessert. I ate plenty of mithai growing up. But the memory of one dish in particular has stayed with me for years: a bowl of pink-tinged payasam from a temple in Kerala.

It was one of the most delicious payasams I had ever tasted. At the time, I didn't know the dish's flavour came from hours of stirring milk, rice, water and sugar over heat until they transformed into something rich and complex.

That payasam's magic lay in two things: its luxurious texture, created by the long reduction of milk and the simmering of starches; and its unmistakable pink hue. Part of that colour came from the broken red rice used. But red rice is not the only path to pink payasam.

Another route involves pressure-cookin...