Easy and delicious rava payasam recipe, a popular South Indian pudding made from semolina (rava or sooji/suji), milk, sugar, and flavored with cardamom saffron and garnished with nuts like cashews.
Heat a heavy-bottomed pan or kadai and add a tsp of ghee. Allow the ghee to melt over medium-low heat.
Add the semolina (rava) to the pan and roast it in ghee until golden brown. Keep stirring continuously to ensure even roasting. Be careful not to burn it. If you are using roasted semolina, you can skip this step.
Now add 1.5 cups of hot water to the roasted rava. Be careful while adding the water, as it may splash a bit. Mix well. Make sure there aren't any lumps. Cover and cook till the rava is soft.
Add sugar, crushed cardamom, and saffron strands, and let the sugar melt. The rava mixture will thin down a bit, and that's normal.
When the sugar dissolves, add the milk and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat until the payasam reaches your desired consistency.
Heat a little ghee in a separate pan and fry the cashews until golden brown. Add them to the payasam and stir.
Your Rava Payasam is ready to serve. You can garnish it with more saffron strands if desired.
Serve hot or cold, depending on your preference.
Notes
Cook the payasam on medium-low heat, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.
Adjust the sugar to your liking, and you can also reduce the sugar amount and add sweet condensed milk.
Adding hot water speeds up the cooking process, and that's optional.