Pal Payasam

Pal payasam as it is commonly called in Kerala is nothing but the common rice kheer which is made in almost all parts of India. As I always reiterate, my family is not a big fan of sweet dishes. So, I make this only during Janmashtami or when I have some Pooja at home. We celebrated our new year “Vishu” yesterday and hubby’s cousin had joined us for dinner. I made

an elaborate sadya and served it in plantain leaf.

For those interested to know, the sadya had pappadam, instant mango pickle, injipuli, olan, Kalan, erisseri, cucumber Pachadi, cabbage thoran, avial, sambar, dal, ghee, rasam and traditional red rice. I didn’t get time and opportunity to click a fully laid plantain leaf. At times it gets difficult to click when you have guests at home, isn’t it? You can get most of the recipes here.

Generally a traditional Kerala sadya has two payasam. A milk and sugar based one, usually the paalada and a jaggery-coconut milk one either with moong dal (parippu Pradhaman) or with broken wheat or Ada Pradhaman. But in this hot Chennai weather, I didn’t want to to slog more and hence opted for this simple pal payasam on my baby’s request 🙂 Happy cooking !!

Ingredients:

• Raw rice 2 small handful
• Full cream milk 1 litre
• Normal milk 1 cup
• Sugar 125 gm
• Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
• Cashew nuts 7-8
• Kismis/sultanas 8-10
• Ghee 1 tbsp

Method:

• Wash and soak the rice for half an hour.
• Cook the rice until it is mushy with one cup of normal milk and half a cup of water.
• Boil the full cream milk till it is reduced by 10-15 %.
• Transfer the cooked rice into a heavy bottom flat pan and add the sugar to it.

• Cook till the sugar melts and mixes with the rice completely.
• Now add the full cream milk and cook on medium flame.

• Keep stirring in between and cook till the milk thickens and the colour changes to a pale pink.

• Remove from fire and add the cardamom powder.
• Heat a small pan and add the ghee to it.
• Fry the cashew nuts and kismis till they are golden in colour. Make sure that they do not get burnt.
• Add this to the cooked payasam and mix gently.
• Yummy payasam is ready. Serve it hot or chilled, the choice is yours.