Quinoa Payasam/ Quinoa Kheer- A guest post by Reshmi Mahesh

Blogging has earned me quite number of friends whom share the same ideas/thoughts/ interests as me. Reshmi of Easy Cook is one such wonderful friend. Facebook has also contributed a lot in growing this friendship, where we chat almost everyday till midnight. I can talk to her about Foodgawker and tastespotting, which is greek and latin to even my husband, also regarding anything else on earth she immediately understands what I exactly mean. 

I really  admire her pictures, they are mindblowing. She has a great eye for details.Do drop in her place and check it out and you will agree with me. She is blogging since 2008 and has an amazing collection of recipes. I am really glad to have such an wonderful blogger as a friend, we can also say it like a friend who is also a blogger.. :)

So when I asked her to do a guest post for me, she immediately agreed to it.  She has prepared a wonderful kheer with quinoa and here she is with the post. Over to Reshmi..

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” ― C.S. Lewis

   Though I started blogging long back I was never too much into it..or I was not consistent with it.....There would be many reasons for that..With all these problems I have never had great friends too in this world...Those whom I meet joins me for some time..then I post after 1 or 2 months..they wud have gone ..I get new people again..ya I miss my previous friends but they never remember me and so I am forced to move on..:(..This was the case until I started my fb account...hey doesn't mean that things changed now..;) but I got to get some real friends with same thoughts and deeds...hoping that they wont leave me on the go...:)..

   The above statement about friendship is just perfect to describe Divya of Divya's culinary journey for whom I am Guest blogging today..:) Its "What! You too?" brought me close to her...Speaking to her makes me feel that I know her from quite a loooooooooong time...and that makes me feel gud..When she asked me for a Guest post I accepted it with no big thoughts...It took a while for me to decide the recipe and had many problems in between so the post really got delayed...She was gud enough to tell that it was Ok...which relived me a lot...When I have to describe Divya I wud say that she is a gud friend and a very lovely lady who spends her whole day for her lovely small family and her nights for blogging...:) She has lovely space with a great collection of recipes and lovely clicks...

   Today I am here to share a sweet.."Quinoa payasam "..A deliciously prepared payasam with quinoa and flavored and colored with rose syrup....Off to recipe...

Ingredients required:

Quinoa,1/4 cup

Water,1/2 cup
Milk, 2 cups
Granulated Sugar, 1/8 cup(adjust according to your taste)
Almonds, 2 tsp(Chopped,lightly toasted)
Rose syrup,1 tbsp

Method of Preparation:

1. Wash quinoa thoroughly under water, drain and set aside.
2. Heat water and add quinoa into it.Cook covered  on medium low heat till quinoa is cooked. ie the white thread(germ) comes out.Do stir in between cooking. Drain if any excess water is there.
3. Boil the milk in a vessel and when it boils add the cooked quinoa to it and cook for 5 minutes. Do stir in between. Now add the sugar into it and continue cooking till the milk reduces and payasam forms slightly thick. The payasam tends to thicken while cooling.So keep that in mind while reducing the milk.
4. Take off the heat and cool it. Now add the rose syrup and give it a good stir so that it mixes well.
5. Garnish with toasted almonds and serve at room temperature or chilled.

Notes:

• Rose syrup has sugar in it, so add sugar accordingly.
• You can use condensed milk to thicken the payasam in that case add it after the 5 mins of cooking quinoa in milk. Reduce the milk to 1 and 1/2 cup in this case.Also avoid rose syrup.
• Since rose syrup has a lovely smell and flavor, cardamom, ghee etc are not added here. You can add them, if avoiding rose syrup.
• Keep stirring the payasam to avoid burned milk at the bottom of the vessel.
• Add more rose syrup if u feel that you want a deep rose color.