Put in 2 cups of milk in a cooking pan and bring it to boil.

Wash and drain rice in enough water and add it to the milk. Simmer the flame and let rice cook in milk till soft. Keep stirring to avoid the rice getting burnt.

Once the rice is soft enough, include sugar. Mix well. As the sugar gets diluted,include rest of the milk. Bring to boil and switch off.

In a seasoning pan add ghee, and roast cashews and raisins one after the other. Add these roasted dryfruits to the paal payasam and mix well.

Divine tasting paal payasam is ready.

Tendency of rice sticking to bottom and getting burnt is more, so keep stirring as it cooks. Also you can grease the pan with little ghee beforehand.

You can pressure cook rice too which is the best option to avoid burning. But make sure you cook rice in milk not in water.

You can add cardamom powder and saffron for flavor and color. I wanted the milky white paal payasam for photo, so I did not add them.

The paal payasam thickens with time, so keep an extra cup of milk for the right consistency of payasam.

Once rice gets cooked, you can mash it too so that the rice breaks and payasam thickens.

Adjust sugar as per your preferences.