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 favorite 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 favorite 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 Halvathis 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/seviyan1 liter milk5 tablespoons sugar1 tablespoon ghee/unsalted butter4-5 green cardamom pods/elaychi1 teaspoon saffron/kesar5 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 color to the kheer. I used this saffronFor  thicker kheer, use more vermicelli.