Semiya Payasam / Vermicelli Kheer ~ Indian Curry Trail

I felt very lazy yesterday and had no mood to prepare anything to eat. Hmm...but as a responsible person for cooking, I had to prepare some snacks for my family members and got an idea of making egg puff as result of quick thinking. It is easy though.When I open my fridge to get eggs, I saw the full tin of milk and oh it is not used for past two days. ohh...approx. 1 litre of milk which is going to expiry in few days! With no mind of wasting the milk, I started to prepare semiya payasam instead of egg puffs. This too won't take much time and am ok with it.

The kheer blogged here has the key ingredient named semiya(In Tamil) which is nothing but vermicelli(In English). You can not see any festivals in India without Payasam/Kheer. We prepare this kheer in different ways with different flavours. But most of the time it is flavoured with cardamom, raisins, saffron,cashew, almond and pistachios. It can be served chill or hot.

Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Semiya / Vermicelli - 1 cup / 1 handful
Milk - 3 cups, boiled
Water - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Butter - 1 tablespoon
Cashew Nuts - 10
Raisins - 5
Almond - 5
Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method:

1) In a wok, heat butter and allow it to melt.
2) Add cashew nuts, raisins and almond. Fry till all nuts become golden brown. Transfer to another plate and keep aside.
3) In the same pan, add vermicelli and fry to make them crisp and golden brown.
4) Transfer the golden fried vermicelli to a deep pan and add a cup of water. Boil it for few minutes.
5) When vermicelli becomes soft in a boiling water, add boiled milk and stir for some time. let it cook for sometime till the vermicelli becomes completely soft.
6) Add sugar and stir well. when it comes to your desired consistency, Remove from heat. Keep in mind that the payasam become thick when it is cooling.
7) Garnish with fried nuts.(As said in step 2).
8) Serve hot or cold.