Deseed dates and keep them aside. Deseed cardamom pods and powder them finely.

Soak almonds in water for an hour. (You can use without soaking too.)

In a pan add 2 tea spoon ghee and dates. Roast them for about 5 mins. Let the dates blend with aroma of ghee.

Grind the roasted dates and soaked almonds adding milk little by little in to semi coarse paste.

Add this ground paste in to a vessel/pan and bring it to boil. You can add remaining milk now. The consistency of this kheer/payasa should not be running. It should be slightly thick as shown in picture below.

Now in a seasoning pan add ghee and fry the cashews and raisins one after the other. Add cardamom powder and fried dry fruit to the dates kheer.

Dates kheer/payasa is ready to be served. Try this kheer and enjoy on this occasion of Navaratri.

Almonds are used in this kheer to get creamy texture. You can use almonds without soaking also. I soaked them for an hour.

While grinding dates, do not add all milk at once. Blend them adding milk little by little.

As per the consistency required you can increase or decrease the quantity of milk used here.