Carrot Payasam

Carrot is my favorite vegetable,the only vegetable i liked from my childhood. Now its the one which suffers my experiments the most. Before i was into cooking,for me carrots was only an ingredient in curries and thoran,i was surprised to know the variety of sweet dishes which can be made with it.

    It was once while making carrot halwa the idea struk me, why not make a payasam with it. I think many have thought of it almost at the same time...it was on tv shows and magazines. But i thought of trying my on version. May be after 6 or 7 times of trial n error i came to this recipe. First few times the carrots either sank to the bottom or was almost invisible due to overcooking. I want the carrots to be seen n the milk to be creamy. The final recipe solved these problems, n everthing was just as i wanted.

Ingredients

Carrot - 250 gm + 250 gm
Milk - 1 litre
Cashew - 50 gm
Cardamom - 2 or 3 pods
Ghee - 2 tablespoons
Sugar - as desired

Method

• Soak the cashews for one hour. Grind to a smooth paste. Add some milk to the paste to make it to a pourable consistency. Keep aside
• Chop and steam 250 gms of carrot. Grind this to a smooth paste.
• Grate rest of the carrots. Heat a heavy bottomed vessel, add 1 tablespoon ghee and fry the grated carrots to 2 or 3 minutes. Transfer this to vessel.
• Heat one more tablespoon of ghee, add the carrot paste. Cook till it starts to bubble, stirring occasionally.Add in the milk.
• When the milk starts to boil add the grated carrots. Cook till the carrots are done.Now add sugar and boil for few more minutes.
• Reduce the flame to low and slowly add the cashew paste. Mix thoroughly and increase the flame.Cook till the payasam thickens.

Notes

• Cashew paste should not be thick. It will be cooked as such. Consistency should be like that of dosa batter
• Always remember to reduce the flame before adding the paste
• Amount of ghee used can be varied 
• Payasam thickens on cooling. So switch off the flame accordingly