Pal Payasam, and Tagged Again!

I decided today that I would celebrate a month of blogging with Pal Payasam (Milk Porridge?). I generally avoid preparation of sweets at home (my standard special-occasion sweet or dessert is semiya/ vermicelli payasam), and this seemed to be the tastier alternative, though time-consuming!

To make the Pal Payasam in the picture, you will need:

Rice - 2 cups
Milk - 5-6 cups
Ghee - 3 tbsp (I love cow ghee, especially in sweets! If you are health conscious, use less ghee, or a healthier alternative - I wouldn't know what, though :-( )

If you pre-cook the rice, and use the cooked rice in the payasam you will require less milk. However, the taste and flavour of the payasam is best if you use only milk to cook the rice. The 1:2 ratio of rice:water will not work here. The type of rice depends on you - boiled or raw rice, brown or white or basmati rice, etc. I have not tried it with all varieties either, so I cannot comment. I suppose (and hope) you could make this with all varieties too! But, make sure you have enough milk to cook the rice in it, as rice varieties differ in time taken to cook.

Cashew - 1/4 cup
Raisins - 1/4 cup
Cloves - 1 tbsp
Cardamom pods - 1 tbsp - crushed
Sugar - 1 cup (OR to taste, I do not like too much sweet and try to restrict the use of sugar!)

Method:

• Heat ghee on low flame in a pan and roast the raisins and cashews and cardamom and cloves, and keep aside
• Wash the rice really well, soak in warm water for 30 minutes
• Boil milk in a heavy bottomed pan, and when it begins to boil, add the rice and stir well
• Keep on low flame and leave to cook uncovered with every-5-minute-check-and-stir process until the rice is cooked and soft (just grab a spoon, dig a few grains of rice out and chew)
• Add sugar and the ghee with the roasted mixture, and keep stirring slowly for about 5 minutes on low flame
• Remove and keep aside to cool, half-covered

Serve warm, or chill and serve later, depending on your choice of hot or cold dessert

Tagged Again

Rekha of Rekha's Kitchen has tagged me. Thank you, Rekha! I have already done this, you can read through my answers.