Carrot Semiya Payasam

We had a small get together with our neighbours for Karthigai. We are doing this for all festivals these days and I love this so much. It makes you forget you are in a foreign land. All the lovely ladies made a lot of dishes. We ate so much by the end of the night. My contribution to the potluck was idli with kurma and payasam. We also had paniyaram, samosa, sundal, chutney, kesari. yum yum...

I learnt the idea of using carrot in payasam (kheer) from one of these lovely ladies. It adds a richness and colour to the payasam. It can be added to payasam made of rice or sago as well. The recipe below will make about 10-12 glasses.

Ingredients

Semiya (Vermicelli) 1 cups

Milk 5 cups

Carrots 10 small (made 2 cups paste. see details below)

Sugar 1 cup

Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp

Cashews

Raisins

Almonds

Ghee 1 tbsp

Method of Preparation

1. Cut the ends of the carrot and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Let it cool and make a paste of it by grinding in mixie without water. It made 2 cups of paste. I felt that my payasam did not have enough carroti taste. So next time I will be adding more.

2. Add the ghee in a big pot and roast the cashews. Keep aside. Do the same with raisins and almonds and keep aside.

3. Add the Vermicelli to the same pot and roast till slightly browned.

4. Add a cup of water and cook till water is almost drained. Add milk, sugar and the carrot paste.

5. Bring it to a boil and them simmer for a few more minutes. You don't need to simmer for long as the carrot would have already given the payasam a rich creamy texture.

6. Add the cardamom powder and garnish with cashews, raisins and almonds.