Semiya Payasam Recipe: Vermicelli Pudding for Onam

Onam is Wednesday, and if there''s one dish that turns up at the end of a Sadhya no matter which Kerala household you''re in, it''s semiya payasam. Roasted vermicelli cooked down in milk until it thickens, sweetened with jaggery or sugar, finished with cardamom and a spoon of ghee-fried cashews. It takes half an hour, most of it just watching a pot, and it''s forgiving enough to make even if this is your first Onam away from home.

This semiya payasam recipe keeps to the basics most Kerala kitchens actually use: roasted vermicelli, milk, sweetener, and a short tempering of ghee, cashews, and raisins at the end. Onam isn''t the core festival on Aahaar''s calendar (most of our regulars are Telugu and Andhra households), but plenty of Malayali families in Berlin are cooking today too, and this is a dish that travels well outside Kerala regardless.

What Semiya Payasam Actually Is

Semiya payasam is vermicelli simmered in milk until the strands soften and the milk thickens slightly around them, then sweetened and flavoured with cardamom. Some households make it with jaggery for a deeper, more caramel-like sweetness; others keep it simple with sugar for a cleaner, paler pudding. Either way, the ghee-fried cashews and raisins on top aren''t optional. They''re the textural contrast that makes a soft, milky dish interesting to eat.

Ingredients

• 1 cup roasted vermicelli (broken into short lengths if not pre-broken)
• 4 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup sugar, or 3/4 cup grated jaggery (adjust to taste)
• 1/4 tsp cardamom powder (or 3-4 green cardamom pods, crushed)
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 10-12 cashews, halved
• 1 tbsp raisins
• A pinch of salt

Method

1. Heat the ghee in a small pan on electric or induction, low-medium heat. Fry the cashews until golden, then the raisins until they puff up. Set both aside. This only takes a minute or two, so don''t walk away.
2. In the same pan, add the vermicelli and roast lightly in the leftover ghee for a minute, just to freshen it up. Skip this step if your vermicelli is already well roasted and you''re short on time.
3. In a heavy-bottomed pot, bring the milk to a gentle simmer on medium heat. Don''t let it boil hard. Milk scorches fast once it''s this close to the base of the pot, so stir every minute or so.
4. Add the vermicelli to the simmering milk. Cook, stirring often, for 8-10 minutes, until the strands are fully soft and the milk has thickened slightly. It''ll thicken more as it cools, so don''t wait for it to look done in the pot.
5. Stir in the sugar or jaggery and a pinch of salt. If using jaggery, add it once the flame is low, and keep stirring. Jaggery can split milk if the pot is too hot when it goes in.
6. Add the cardamom powder, then the fried cashews and raisins, keeping a few back for garnish. Simmer for another 2 minutes and turn off the heat.
7. Serve warm, or chilled if you''d rather have it as a cold pudding later. Garnish with the reserved cashews and raisins.

Notes

• If using jaggery, melt it separately in a splash of hot water and strain out any grit before adding it to the milk. Cleaner sweetness, no surprises at the bottom of the bowl.
• Payasam thickens a lot as it sits, even in the fridge. Loosen with a splash of warm milk before serving leftovers.

Try These Products

• Roasted Vermicelli 500G: pre-roasted, the base of the payasam
• Natural Jaggery 900G: for the deeper, caramel-style sweetness (see note above on the slug/name mismatch)
• Cardamom Green 50G: for flavouring the milk

All available at aahaar.de, delivered across Germany.