We in India have a saying that "In 12 months we have 13 festivals". And each festival calls for something or other kind of sweet preparation, as the custom is spread all across the India. The most popular dessert amongst all the sweets prepared during festivals is 'Kheer' or 'Pal Payasam' or 'Payesh' or 'Rice Pudding'.
Though the preparation time is slightly on the higher side (about an hour), but the aroma of the kheer as well as the taste feels simply worth the wait. We bengalis make this with a special kind of rice 'Gobindobhog'( tiny grained Indian variety), but since I ran out of gobindobhog rice I made this with another short grained rice variety. This payesh is must on our loved one's birthday and on Bengali New Year. It is called Pal Payasam in Southern part of India. The word Pal means rice and Payasam means rice pudding. A very colorful and vibrant festival called Onam (mostly celebrated in the state of Kerala) is coming up, so my today's payasam is a small dedication to all my blogger friends wishing them a very Happy and prosperous Onam. Traditional ingredient to make kheer is rice but this can be made with sevai (vermicelli) also. Diversity in our country is such that, the same kheer is made by using coconut milk in Southern part of India.
Serves: 4 , Preparation time: 45 minutes to an hour
Ingredient:
1 liter Milk
1/2 cup Rice
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
7-8 Raisins
6-7 Cashews (chopped)
5-6 Almonds (soaked in warm water and sliced)
Method:
Wash rice for 2-3 times and soak it for 20 minutes. In a pan, heat the ghee and roast all the nuts and raisins till nuts turn brown and raisins turn plump. Keep it aside.
In a heavy bottom pan add milk along with washed rice. On a medium heat let it come to boiling point. Stir continuously so that the milk does not stick to the bottom. Rice will take 20-25 minutes to cook in milk, so leaving unattended may get the kheer scorched. Add sugar when the rice is almost cooked and stir well. This step is important as adding sugar to milk will stop the process of rice being further cooked. Now on a medium heat cook till the milk has reduced to half. Cook for another 10 minutes. Add cardamom powder, half of the nuts and raisins to this. Stir well to combine and remove from the heat. Finally keep it covered to prevent formation of skin on top of the kheer. Serve it hot or cold as per your liking.
User Comments & Tips:
- You can have this kheer plain or as per your choice you can add rose water, pistachio, kesar, almond etc.
- In order to make the density of the payesh more uniform after it is prepared, it is recommend that little amount of boiled milk be added.

Sending this to Sanyukta's wonderful event 'Color Your Palate- A visual Treat '.
And to Pari's 'Only' Kid's Delight event
Yum! Very nice and tempting! Beautiful presentation!!
ReplyDeletenice clicks..looks so perfect and yummy!!
ReplyDeleteLooks yum and nice pics dear
ReplyDeletewow such a beautiful presentation,kheer looks too good deepa..
ReplyDeleteVery yummy kheer, I like your almond and rice decoration. Looks beautiful:-)
ReplyDeleteLooks absolutely yumm !!! Great clicks love ur creative arrangment of almonds !!!
ReplyDeletePal payasam looks delicious. I love the presentation.
ReplyDeleteami aajkei payesh banabo....hubbyr birthday jonnyo...darun presentation....
ReplyDeleteKheer looks so festive!!
ReplyDeleteLovely presentation!!
Looks so creamy and delicious, love your presentation too...
ReplyDeletefestive,innovative n so so creative presentation deepa...truly a visual treat....thanks so much for sending this bful entry to my event...simply gorgeous kheer,creamy n delicious...
ReplyDeletebeautiful clicks n mouthwatering kheer
ReplyDeleteBeautiful presentation..absolutely delicious payasam..lovely
ReplyDeletepal payasam looks delicious ...love the presentation .... awesome
ReplyDeleteSatya
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looks delicious and yummy....lovely presentation!!
ReplyDeleteWow..looks absolutely inviting !!
ReplyDeleteBest Regards
Sulagna
http://e-senseofspicenfragrance-sulagna.blogspot.com/
thank u for visiting my blog ,ur comments r highly appreciated..pls keep coming..loved ur space and liked many recipes..happy to follow u :)...btw rice kheer looks yum..beautiful presentation ,indeed a visual treat !
ReplyDeleteHi dearie, hru doing??? Thanks alot for continuously visiting me ya! That payasam is simply mouthwatering dear...wish to have some!
ReplyDeleteLovely presentation n clicks! Loved ur new header too! :D
Chaler payesh hochhe amader bangalider shob theke priyo. Bhishon bhalo lage. Darun baniyechho r eto sundor kore present korechho mone hochhe tomar barite ekhoni pouchhe jai r ek bati payesh kheye feli.
ReplyDeleteYummy kheer!! love to have one cup.:)
ReplyDeleteLovely payasam....loved ur decor too..
ReplyDeleteWonderful payasam and lovely decoration
ReplyDeleteOmg, fabulous looking and irresistible paal payasam..
ReplyDeletePayesh is looking delicious! your presentation (both cooked and uncooked!)is gorgeous!
ReplyDeletenice presentation!
ReplyDeleteall time favourite!
My husband loves this kheer. will try it now. Lovely presentation dear.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHappy onam to you too. Wonderful and gorgeous presentation.
ReplyDeleteHai Dear,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for ur Onam wishes and thanks for the lovely post to wish malayalees Happy onam.
We call it paal payasam as u asid,but by paal we mean milk.We make payasam with Dhals,or rice or vermicilli or fruits etc etc in milk or cocnut milk and for sweetness we add sugar or jaggery.Payasam is a general name for such sweet prepasration.So Paal payasam is the sweet preparation that we make in milk.Dont bother about the meaning :) Payasam looks super.
The payesh looks so cool and calm...fantastic photograpgy, keep it up...
ReplyDeleteyummy kheer and beautiful presentation :-)
ReplyDeleteI love the decoration equally as your kheer! lovely!
ReplyDeletevery nice pictures and decoration...
ReplyDeleteWish you Happy Rakshabandhan.
ReplyDeleteAnother beautiful post dear. Kheer makes me hungry:)
ReplyDeletePlease send me one katori of Kheer
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Howdy this is kind of of off topic but I was wanting to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting a blog soon but have no coding know-how so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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