Aval Payasam

Quote of the day:Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.
Abdul Kalam.
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One thing my husband and I can agree, is our love of desserts. Since I got married, I have made several traditional Indian Desserts and he just loves the simple ones too. So when we had guests come over for dinner, I had a craving for a simple yet delicious dessert. I decided to make Aval Payasam, an easy payasam preparation among the many varieties of payasam made in Tamilnadu. 
When it comes to payasam recipes, there are many popular ingredients used and one of it is definitely Aval/poha/flattened Rice. Aval is roasted in ghee, powdered, cooked in milk, sweetened with sugar and flavored with cardamom and cloves. I added a little bit of cashew paste to make it extra creamy and delicious.

Ingredients:

1.  ½ cup Aval/Poha/flattened Rice
2. 10 Cashews
3. 2 cups milk (Whole milk )
4. 12 Oz Evaporated milk ( approx 1½ cups)
5. ½ cup Sugar

For flavoring:

1. ½ teaspoon Cardamom powder
2. 2 cloves powdered
3. 15 to 20 Cashews broken
4. 2 tablespoon Ghee/clarified butter
5. few strands Saffron (optional) 

Preparation:

Soak saffron in warm milk for ½ hour. 

Heat a tablespoon ghee in a heavy bottom vessel/Pan and roast the cashews ( the quantity in the flavoring section ) until light brown. Set aside.
Roast the Aval in one a tablespoon ghee till it turns golden brown. In a mixer grind the cashews to a fine powder and add Aval and grind to a coarse consistency ( more coarser than rawa ).

Transfer the powder to a heavy bottom vessel, add milk to poha & cashew powder and cook it until it is done. Add more milk if the mixture has become thick while cooking.

Add sugar, evaporated milk and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Check for payasam consistency (I prefer Aval payasam to be a little thick ). Now add cardamom, cloves powder & soaked saffron. Mix well and remove from heat.

Add the roasted cashews to the payasam. 
Serve warm or chilled.