Recipe For Varieties of Payasam / Kheer

Kheer / paayasam is a pudding which is one of the simplest and easiest food item that is relished the most by all alike. Kheer / paayasam is commonly made of rice and is offered as naivedyam / prasad to the God during the pooja time and religious festivals like Basant Panchami and Ratha Saptami

You can make Kheer / payasam not only with rice but you can use other ingredients like sabudana, vermicelli etc for preparing Kheer which are equally relished by all besides rice pudding. This sweet item is the best pudding taken as an after meal item and is even good for health particularly for those who suffer from acidity problem.

Kheer with rice

Rice pudding / kheer with rice is the most commonly prepared sweet during the religious festivals as this is one of the easiest sweet items which can be prepared in no time.

• Just cook rice (basmati rice will be tastier) a bit softer in pressure cooker.
• Remove it from the pressure cooker add milk and sugar or gur (jaggery) as per your taste and cook till the milk boils.
• Keep on simmer for a while.
• Heat enough ghee in a pan, fry cashew nuts and raisins (kishmish). You can add cut almonds, pistachio (pista), dates and any other dry fruit you like for additional flavor.
• And add this to the kheer.
• Also add little cardamom (elaichi) powder at the end.

Hot kheer or paayasam is ready to be savored. This is an easy way of preparing rice kheer. Generally, rice is boiled in milk till it turns soft and then jaggery / sugar is added to it. This is further boiled till the whole thing condenses and gets thicker in consistency.

Kheer with vermicelli

• Heat a thick bottomed pan and dry roast the vermicelli till golden brown.
• Add enough water and keep boiling over low flame till the vermicelli becomes soft.
• Add enough milk and sugar to this and cook till the milk boils and thickens.
• Heat enough ghee in a pan and fry dry fruits like cashews, pista, almonds, raisins and other dry fruits you like.
• Add this to the vermicelli kheer.

Kheer with sabudana

• Wash sabudana with clean water and cook it in enough water till it becomes soft
• Once it becomes soft add milk to it and allow it to boil.
• Add sugar while it boils and keep over low flame till it thickens.
• One it is done add dry fruits as per desire fried in ghee and add these to the kheer.

For a variety of taste to these kheers you can add sweet boondi or Indian cottage cheese (paneer), khoya (kova) to make boondi payas or khova payas. If you wish you can even add small sized gulab zamuns or kala zamuns to the kheer to make gulab jamun payas which really adds to the taste of the kheer.

Kheer / payasam with Coconut Milk and Rice

Kheer with coconut milk and rice tastes good. It hardly takes 10-15 minutes to prepare this sweet item. Make a thick solution of jaggery by heating jaggery in water. Soak rice for half-an-hour and mix near equal measures of rice and grated coconut. Make a paste of these two. Heat this thick paste over low flame. Once it becomes soft, add the prepared jaggery solution to the boiled paste and keep on simmer. Keep stirring for 5 minutes or till you get the required consistency of the kheer. Then heat enough ghee in a separate pan and fry dry fruits as per your liking. You can fry cashew, raisins, pistachio, almonds etc in the ghee and add it to the kheer. It can be savored.