Semiya'N Dal Payasam with Jaggery & Coconut milk

In Kerala, where I am from, we do not typically celebrate Ganesh Chathurthi with the same pomp and festivities as in the rest of India. But in our house we always have a little celebration on this day as Jai's birthday as per the Hindu calendar falls on this auspicious day and Aishwarya's the very next day. So as to mark this special occasion I made this simple yet delicious payasam. The payasam is a combination of vermicelli milk payasam(semiya payasam) and dal payasam made with coconut milk. I was again in a mood to experiment and ended up with this delight. So if you are in a mood to try something different from the traditional payasam this would be a good option.
Ingredients:
Vermicelli – 1/2 cup
Moong dal split - ¼ cup
Thick Coconut milk – 1 glass
Thin Coconut milk – 1 ¼ glass
Milk – 1 glass
Broken Cashews – ¼ cup
Raisins – ¼ cup
Ghee – 3 tbsp
Jaggery – 3/4cup (or to taste)
Water – 1 glass
Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp
a pinch of salt
Method:
Dry roast  moong dal  until you get a nice aroma of roasted dal. Immediately add water to the dal. Wash and pressure cook till well cooked. Make a syrup of jaggery using one cup water. Strain it to remove any impurities.Dry roast vermicelli and cook this in jaggery syrup, add more water if needed. Once vermicelli is cooked well add the cooked dal to it along with 2 tablespoons of ghee. Cook this over for about a minute.
Add thin coconut milk and combine well. When it starts to boil, Add the thick coconut milk and cook this for another 2-3 minutes  stirring continuously. Remove from the stove add the milk  and cardamom powder salt along with ghee roasted raisins and cashew.
If the payasam is too thick for your liking you may dilute it using more milk. Check the sweetness when adding more milk, add more jaggery syrup as needed.