Saamai Paal Payasam | Little Millet Kheer | Millet Kheer Recipe | Easy Millet Payasam Recipe

Happy New Year Wishes to all my readers and fellow bloggers. After a short break I am back to blogging and feeling good to start my blog post. I got emails, messages and comments from some of my readers about my absence,  we had to go to India for visa related issues and everything went well and we came back here last week. It was a short unplanned trip to India, I am so happy to meet my family after almost 8 years and my kids had great time with their grandparents, uncles and aunt. They mingled well with everyone and enjoyed each and every day. Its really a new and fun filled experience for them and now they wanted to visit India every 2 or 3 yrs once :)

Initially i had more dream and plan about my India visit but after my mom's loss everything changed and our trip was also not a vacation we went because of our out of status issue and also not sure about our come back. But with god's grace and my mom's blessings everything went well and I could have some quality time with my dad and sis.
December month is not the good time to stay in Chennai, every year cyclone or flood affects the city badly and last December because of cyclone the total city was shut down for 3-4 days and it tool almost a week to get back to normal. I wanted to buy some props for blog like copper, brass, stainless steel bowls, plates but i couldn't buy much at last minute shopping. Overall, the trip was good and I got boosted with fresh positive energy and some pleasant memories to run my days till my next visit.
Now coming to today's recipe, Little Millet Kheer/Saamai Paal Payasam is my first post of this year, another new start with a simple and delicious sweet recipe. Millets are getting popular and many people started using it in their daily menu, rice got replaced by millets in many families. Millets are versatile you can cook any kind of dish from Idly/Dosa, Pongal, Sweets, Cakes, Biryani/Pulao etc. I tried paal payasam using saami/little millet and it turned out so good. I shared it with my friends and got nice appreciation for this simple yet yummy dessert. Off to the recipe..

Little Millet Kheer | Saamai Paal Payasam Recipe

Prep Time : 15 Minutes | Cook Time : 20 Minutes

Recipe Category : Sweets/Desserts | Recipe Cuisine : Indian

Serves  6-8

Ingredients

1. Milk     4 cups(I used both whole & Reduced fat milk)
2. Little Millet   1/3 cup
3. Sugar    3/4 cup or to taste
4. Cardamom Powder    1/4 tsp
5. Raisins   10-12 no.
6. Cashew Nuts    10 no.
7. Fresh Coconut pieces   1-2 tbsp
8. Ghee   1 tsp

Method
First wash millet using a strainer and soak it in a bowl with enough water for 15 minutes.
I do not like to fry raisins so i soaked the raisins in separate bowl to add in the kheer later.

Then take milk in a sauce pan and bring it to boil, once it started boiling and turns frothy add soaked and drained millet to milk and cook it for 10 minutes or until the millet is cooked soft.
After that add sugar, stir well and cook for another 6-8 minutes.

Then add soaked raisins, cardamom powder and let it cook in medium heat until the payasam/kheer turns thick and creamy, now and then stir well and mash/mix the malai.
Meanwhile, heat ghee in a tempering pan and add chopped coconut pieces fry well and then add cashew nuts and fry till it turns light golden brown and switch off the stove.

Finally add the ghee roasted cashews and coconut pieces to the paysam and switch off the stove.
That's it...Tasty Little Millet Kheer/Saamai Paal Payasam ready to serve. Serve Warm or Chilled.
Notes
I used raw natural cane sugar that's why the payasam is little pale in color.
Adding ghee roasted coconut pieces is optional but sure it gives nice crunch and taste to the kheer.
The same way you can use Barnyard Millet/Vrat Ka Chawal to make kheer.