Peel off the skin from cardamoms and powder it finely using mortar and pestle.

Take fresh coconut in a mixer and add a cup of water. Grind this to very fine puree. Pour it over a strainer and squeeze to extract coconut milk.

In a pan add bengal gram and dry roast it till the lentils warm up. Subsequently roast the rice too.

In a cooking vessel add roasted bengal gram and rice together and add 1.5 cups of water. Pressure cook it for about 3 whistles and in simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile in a cooking pan add jaggery and 1//2 cup of water. Cook it till jaggery dissolves.

If the jaggery syrup has impurities, filter it and add to the same pan. Next include cooked lentils and rice. Let it cook for 5 to 10 minutes in simmer and absorb sweetness from jaggery. Then include coconut milk. Adjust consistency by adding some water. Continue cooking for few minutes and add cardamom powder.

Finally in a seasoning pan add ghee and cashews. Fry them till little brown and subsequently fry raisins till they puff up. Top these fried nuts over payasa. Yummy dessert rice bengal gram payasa is ready to serve.

Rice thickens the payasa over time, so let payasa be running when you cook initially.

Adjust consistency by adding more coconut milk or water.

I have used homemade coconut milk, you can use store bought one too.

Ensure bengal gram has cooked till soft before adding to jaggery syrup.

Keep stirring the payasa to avoid burning at the bottom.