Semiya Payasam

Here is a delicious and quick sweet payasam that is very easy to prepare. It hardly takes ten to fifteen minutes to relish this wonderful dessert.

Ingredients:

Semiyaa (Vermicelli) - 1 cup
Cashews and almonds- handful
Water - 1 cup
Sugar - a cup
Saffron - a pinch
Milk - 3 cups
Cardamom - two or three pods

Method:

Heat 1 teaspoon ghee and fry the vermicelli till light brown. Keep it aside.

Then, boil 1 cup water plus half a cup milk. When it starts boiling, add the vermicelli and cover it. Stir occasionally.

Once the vermicelli becomes soft , add the sugar and continue to stir.

Put the saffron in a teaspoon of milk and dissolve it until the milk turns yellow. Add this milk to the cooked vermicelli. Add remaining milk and powdered cardamom. Let the content heat up.

Meanwhile, fry the cashewnuts and almonds in ghee and add it to the payasam. Mix well and turn off the heat in a couple of minutes.

Your payasam is ready and can be served hot or cold.

Variations:

1. Vermicelli can be cooked in milk instead of water. In that case, more milk should be added.

2. Instead of boiling milk, you can add 1 can of evaporated milk to the cooked vermicelli.

3. Instead of adding sugar and milk separately, you can add one can of sweetened condensed milk

4. To dilute the payasam you can add one cup of plain milk or one can of evaporated milk.

5. Instead of roasting the vermicelli you can buy the readymade roasted vermicelli. saves time ;-)