Payasam is an Indian desert usually made by boiling rice or vermicelli with milk, sugar and flavoured with cardamom. There are so many other variants besides rice and vermicelli that can be used and for this recipe I’ve used the alphabet pasta.
This recipe is from my dear friend who used to make this for her children when they were small. She said they would be thrilled looking out for the various alphabets in the payasam.
Payasam is typically made for special occasions like festivals and birthdays, but my dad will ask for it every single day without fail after lunch and dinner. He’s got such a sweet tooth and now I know where I got my sweet tooth gene from!
Ingredients
- Alphabet pasta – 1 cup
- Condensed milk or carnation milk – ½ can
- Sugar – 1/8 cup and only if using carnation milk
- Raisins – handful
- Cashew nuts – handful and slit into halves
- Cardamom – 2 pods, crushed
- Water
- Ghee – for frying
Method
- In a medium saucepan, add a little ghee and roast the cashew nuts till golden brown.
- Remove and keep it aside and next fry the raisins for couple of mins. Remove and keep it aside.
- In the same saucepan, add more ghee if required and roast the alphabet pasta lightly till golden brown.
- Then add water and let it cook.
- Once the pasta is cooked, add the condensed milk or carnation milk.
- Add sugar (if using carnation milk) and adjust the taste accordingly and let it come to a boil.
- Lastly add the crushed cardamoms, cashew nuts and raisins.
- Remove from stove.
- This can be served warm or if you like it cold, transfer to a container and keep it in the fridge till it’s time to be served.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see your pics on Instagram and do tag @bakezbyshobz and hashtag it #bakezbyshobz
Sharing my experiences as a die hard foodie! 