Mother's Recipe #4

Sheer Khurma/ 

Shevaya Kheer/ 

Semiya Payasam 

(Vermicelli Pudding)

This month, I thought of trying another simple dish, my mother used to make often on festive days - Shevaya Kheer. With the flavour of Vishu lingering from the week before, I thought why not Semiya Payasam! But then because of the Eid context last week, I finalized my plan on making Sheer Khurma.

These three dishes are pretty much the same thing, just with different consistencies of milk. While Sheer Khurma has a thick rich and creamy form, Shevaya Kheer has slightly more but thinner milk and Semiya Payasam has a lot more milk giving it a pourable consistency. Ingredients are all the same. Just a dash of the local cultural touch makes the difference.

In fact I remember my mother saying, “Lets make Sheer Khurma” for that one Eid holiday we used to get back when I was in India. She used to tell me that it's just a thicker version of the Shevaya Kheer, but sounds a lot more “royal”! Hence it seemed perfect for Eid-Ul-Fitr.

Ingredients :

• Milk - 1 litre (thick, full fat)
• Vermicelli/ Semiya - 1 cup
• Dates - 3-4
• Nuts (Almonds and Cashews) - 5-6 each
• Raisins - a handful
• Cardamom - 3
• Sugar/ Jaggery - about 2 tablespoons
• Ghee - 2-3 teaspoons
• Rose water - ½ teaspoon

Freestyle Method :

• On a hot pan, roast the dates and raisins with ghee and keep aside when aromatic and marinated.
• In the same pan, roast the vermicelli, crushed cardamom and finely chopped nuts until golden brown.
• Add milk + the dates and raisins mixture to the same pan.
• Let the vermicelli cook in the boiling milk. Keep stirring so that the vermicelli does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Let the milk thicken.
• Add sugar/ jaggery and rose water. Continue stirring.
• Turn off the heat when the vermicelli looks thick and wormy and the raisins are juicy and plump.
• Let it cool and garnish with more nuts.
• When warm, it can be eaten as breakfast and when cold, it can be served for dessert.

Of course, a themed plating is a must! After watching too many episodes of my favourite MasterChef Australia, I keep serving those fancy plates of food, telling my family about how I'm more into “Sophisticated Flavours” ;)

But secretly, later on, I added a lot more milk and more sugar to the Sheer Khurma and served it as Payasam to my very very sweet “payasam people” from the south ;)