Easy Badam Kheer / Payasam

Wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year 2018!

Begin your year with Badam Kheer, a really delicious dessert made with almonds, milk and sugar, with a hint of saffron. This is a lovely dish where almonds are blanched and ground to make a smooth paste, and the paste is added to boiled milk along with sugar. Saffron is added for fragrance and colour, along with nuts sautéed in ghee for crunch. Yumm!! 🙂

This can be made ahead of time and left in the refrigerator. Serve warm during winter, and chilled during summer! This is really versatile that way 🙂 Quantity can be easily doubled or tripled according to your needs. Super easy to make, and really quick as well; should take you no more than 25-30 minutes from start to finish. Read on for the recipe!

Ingredients

• 15-20 almonds
• 1/2 litre milk
• Sugar – 2 to 3 tbsp
• Saffron – 5 to 6 strands
• Chopped mixed nuts (Cashewnuts, pistachios) – 5 to 6 each
• Ghee – 1 tsp

Method

Making the almond paste

1. Heat some water until it is simmering. Add the almonds and blanch them for 3-5 minutes.
2. Drain the almonds and peel them. The skins should come away easily.
3. Grind the almonds with one cup of milk (or more) until you achieve a smooth paste consistency.
4. Set aside the almond paste.
5. Soak the saffron strands in a few drops of milk and set aside.

Making the Payasam

1. Heat the milk in a deep saucepan and bring to a boil on medium flame.
2. Lower the flame to sim and add the sugar immediately after the milk comes to a boil. Stir continuously until the sugar is dissolved.
3. Now add the ground almond paste into the hot milk, stirring continuously to ensure that no lumps are formed. Let it boil in sim for about 10 minutes, until you see bubbles and the payasam thickens slightly.
4. Add the saffron milk and the kesar colour. Keep stirring for few seconds until well incorporated and the colour changes to light yellow/orange.
5. Saute a few Cashewnuts in ghee and add to the payasam. Mix well.
6. Switch off the stove. Allow to stand for 10-15 minutes.
7. Serve warm or chilled as per your preference.

TIPS & TWEAKS

• You can refrigerate the payasam for 3-4 days.
• Once the payasam/kheer cools down, it tends to thicken considerably. Just add fresh boiled milk to dilute the kheer as required.
• You can eliminate sugar and add condensed milk in its place for sweetness.
• The thickness of the kheer depends upon how long you boil it for. If you boil slightly longer for about 15-20 minutes, you will have a more porridge consistency kheer. Add more milk if you want runny consistency kheer.

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