Thursday, March 26, 2015

Kesar Seviyan Kheer :Vermicelli Milk Pudding Infused With Saffron


Cooking is love made visible, food is magical. Treat a kid with cupcake and see the spark on his/her face. After a breakup or a hectic day just give a woman scoops of icecream and then see her reactions. After an argument with your partner, make for him/her favourite dish and then see anger melting down. That’s what food does-bring smile to faces, relax the mood and ease down the irritation.

Everyone has their favorite dish, the dish that you can die for. What’s your favourite dish? For me it’s Kheer, milk pudding made with rice or vermicelli. What kheer does for me is what chocolate would do for many women. In summers, on a shiny sunny day I would prefer a bowl of chilled Rice(chawal) Kheer but on cold night I would love to gulp bowls of hot Seviyan Kheer.


Kheer is made my boiling milk with rice (chawal), vermicelli (semiya), sago (sabudana) and many other grains. Basically you need to boil the milk till it gets thick and then sweeten it with sugar, jaggery (gud) or condensed milk. Flavoured with cardamom (elyachi) or saffron (keasar) and garnished with chopped nuts. This is also known as Payasam in south and Payesh in Bengal and is generally made during festivals or special events.


Unlike other Indian sweets such as Gulab Jamuns or Suji Ka Halva this sweet dish is prepared quickly and is the easiest one. Here is how to make Kesar Seviyan Kheer, my way.

Ingredients:
1 cup broken vermicelli/seviyan
1 liter milk
5 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ghee/unsalted butter
4-5 green cardamom pods/elaychi
1 teaspoon saffron/kesar
5 tablespoon nuts to garnish (notes)

Method:
  1. Heat ghee in a pan and on slow heat roast the vermicelli to golden borwn.
  2. Open cardamom pods and add to vermicelli and let it release the aroma.
  3. In a heavy bottom kadai/wok boil the milk. When milk comes to boil, add pinch of saffron.
  4. Add sugar and vermicelli. Let it cook for 10 minutes on slow flame. Let it boil till vermicelli is cooked.
  5. If you like thick kheer cook for another 5 minutes. I like to have bit runny kheer, so I did not cook more.
  6. Garnish with chopped nuts and remaining saffron.
  7. Serve warm or cold


Notes:
I used almonds, cashews and raisins, feel free to use any nuts. If you want you can roast the nuts in ghee too.
Please use good quality full fat milk for this recipe.
I like sweet kheer, but adjust sweetness as per your taste.
Saffron gives subtle aroma and nice yellowish-orange colour to the kheer. I used this saffron
For  thicker kheer, use more vermicelli.

21 comments:

  1. kheer looks very tasty and nice clicks..

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  2. I love seviyan kheer!! One of my favorite and love your photography!

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  3. Nice kheer and interesting post, this is my favourite too.

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  4. Australia ki jit ke khudhi main? lol, looks really tempting. its my favorite too. quick and yummy

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  5. Wow !! simple delicious kheer..Loved the colour combo ..

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  6. This looks so good! I had bever try a dessert made with vermicelli, this sounds really interesting.... an delicious. Pinned!

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  7. I love how you describe food as a visual expression of love. I've never thought about it quite like that, but it totally is. I enjoy making food not only to eat it, but also to see the look on my wife's face when she takes a bite. And along the same lines, I love taking food to other people. Food is a universal language. We all need to eat...so why shouldn't we eat something delicious? I've never had kheer before, but clearly I need to give it a shot! :-)

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    1. David, your wife is sooooo lucky :)
      I agree with you, food for body is not enough there must be food for soul too :)
      Do give kheer a try, its totally worth it :)

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  8. what a great visual treat,Shweta..love to have some now,yummy clicks too !

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  9. Shweta I love kheer and you are making me drool with these pictures at 10 in the morning, right after I had my breakfast! Isn't kheer so comforting, hold or cold, I can have a bowl full anytime!

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    1. wow, good to know that Manali, in that case same pinch :) Thanks

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  10. Man this looks good. What a great balance of spices. Love!

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  11. Oh i love sevaiya kheer... looks absolute yumm :)

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