Semiya Payasam | Vermicelli Kheer

Hey folks,

Hope you are enjoying a great Sunday evening here and People are celebrating the birth of Lord Ganesha back home.  Any festival is incomplete without payasam in Tamil Nadu. Whether you are hosting a feast for guest or preparing a perfect authentic Tamil cuisine, Payasam/Kheer is a must. There are varieties of Kheer/Payasam like semiya payasam, javarisi payasam, paal payasam, paruppu payasam etc.

Usually, amma prepares javarisi (sago/tapioca pearls) payasam and semiya payasam very often at home. But my favorite has always been Semiya Payasam. Whenever payasam is prepared at home, methu vada is a must to accompany with it. I and my brothers used to enjoy payasam with Pappad, which is called as appalam in Tamil Nadu.

Payasam tastes best when you serve it on a banana leaf. Since I don’t have a sweet tooth, I am not a great lover of sweets. Tomorrow being Chaturthi here, I wanted to prepare an uncomplicated sweet and hence, prepared this Semiya Payasam.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Vermicelli
• 3 cups Milk
• ¾ – 1 cup Sugar
• ½ teaspoon Cardamom Powder
• 1 tablespoon Cashews
• 1 tablespoon Ghee
• 1 teaspoon Raisins (optional)
• Saffron strands, few (optional)

Method:

• Boil milk over medium flame. Once it is boiled, remove from the flame and set aside
• In a non-stick pan, dry roast vermicelli/semiya till it becomes brownish.  If you are using roasted vermicelli, you can skip this step
• In the same pan, add boiled milk to the semiya and bring it to boil over medium flame.
• Once the semiya is cooked, reduce the flame to low and add sugar by stirring continuously. Cook until the sugar is completely dissolved and milk is thickened
• Sprinkle cardamom powder and give a stir. Switch off the flame.
• In a small pan, add ghee and heat it over medium flame. Add cashews and fry till it becomes golden in color. If you are using raisins, fry them in ghee too. You can directly add raisins to the payasam.
• Add the roasted cashews to the payasam. Garnish with saffron strands.
• Serve payasam either warm or cold.

I usually prefer payasam hot with fried pappad. If you haven’t tried this combination yet, give a try next time and let me know how it tasted.

If you try the recipe, do let me know how they tasted in comments. If you like space, do like and follow my profile at here –
Facebook, Google

Yours Truly

Karthi