Banana Payasam / Kheer

Cooking is nothing but another chore of the day to my sister because of her busy life. Somehow, she has recently started experimenting in her kitchen, surprising both my mother and me. She has even decided to make naivedyam on all the days during Dasara. However, she is trying to keep it simple and is planning to go with simple sweets like kheers and halwas.
I had prepared banana payasam for Friday neivedyam and thought of posting it, for her. This simple, delicious payasam can be prepared in about 10 minutes in the microwave. Overripe bananas are good candidates for this payasam.

Ingredients to make about 2 cups of kheer:

• 2 Bananas
• 1 cup Milk
• 1/2 cup sugar (or jaggery)
• 1 tsp cardamom powder
• 1-2 Tbsp ghee
• 1 Tbsp each - cashews & raisins
• A pinch of saffron (optional)

Making the kheer:
* Peel and mash the bananas finely.
* Add ghee to a microwave safe bowl and toast the cashews and raisins in the microwave. Remove them with a slotted spoon and add the mashed bananas to the same ghee and cook for about 3 minutes in the microwave.
* Then add the sugar, cardamom powder, saffron and milk. Cook for about 4 -5 minutes more.
* Add the toasted cashews and raisins to the kheer and mix well.

This goes to
1. Akhila's Dish name starts with B
2. Nivedita's Celebrate Sweets, hosted by Ayesha this month with the theme Kheers.
3. Srivalli's MEC event, hosted this month by Smitha with the theme, Festive dishes.