Paruppu pradhaman

Paruppu Pradhaman is one of Kerala Iyer's Famous Payasam.  My patti is an expert in making this payasam.  I used to wonder in those days without so much facilities like Mixer Grinder, Pressure cooker etc., how people make so many yummy dishes.

Pumpkin Kheer

This is something I made when we were in Delhi last year. I finally managed to find time to write this post. I was actually searching for the picture in my folders.  I made this in microwave and it came out pretty good.  My girls were not so excited about this payasam ( they like pal payasam ). Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Pumpkin Pieces -  1 1/2 cups (chop it into small cubes)
2. almonds - 10 seeds
3. Milk - 2 cups ( I used the regular mother dairy milk we get in Delhi)
4. Sugar - 1 cup (acc to taste)
5. Edible Camphor - a pinch
6. Cardamom - 1 or 2
7. food color - Orange color a pinch

Take a microwave safe bowl, put the pumpkin pieces and almond seeds adding required amount of water. Cover it with a lid and MW for 5 to 7 minutes, checking / stirring in between, or till it is done. When the pumpkin pieces are cooked, take the bowl out very carefully and let it cool. Grind it into a fine paste. Again put the pumpkin paste in the bowl, along with one and half cups of milk& food color  and let it cook or 3 to 5 minutes. Check it often cos the milk may spill. Now add the edible camphor and cardamom seeds and the remaining milk & sugar and let it boil for another 3 to 5 minutes. Take it out. Let it cool, refrigerate and enjoy. Be careful before taking it out from the MW.

I am sending this to Srivalli's MEC Potluck Party.

Kadalaparuppu Payasam - 1

I am not a very big fan of any paruppu payasam. But my mom used to make paruppu payasam very often and she used to tell that jaggery is good for health than sugar. I made this payasam last month for my FIL's ceremony and it came out pretty good and the surprisingly kids really liked it.

Ingredients:-

1. Channa dhall/Kadalaparuppu - 1 cup
2. Jaggery - 3/4 cup (can be increased acc to taste
3. Cardamom - 1
4. Edible Camphor - a pinch
5. Ghee - 1 tsp
6. Cashew - 1 tsp (chopped)
7. Coconut - 1 tsp (chop it into small cubes)

First pressure cook channa dhall upto 3/4th done.  In the mean time, dissolve jaggery with required amount of water and removed sand from it, if any. Again in the same pan, boil the jaggery water adding cardamom and edible camphor. When it starts to boil, add the 3/4th cooked dhall to it and let it boil for5 to 7 mts or till the dhall is fully cooked. Mash the dhall if you wish to. Fry cashew and coconut in ghee, to golden brown and pour it top of payasam. This is how my mom used to make this payasam. My MIL used to follow another method to make this. Will post that recipe soon..

Mango Nuts Payasam for MEC Potluck Party

I made this payasam for my father-in-law's 27th day ceremony.  Since Srivalli's MEC Potluck Party is going on, thought of making it in microwave.  This is the first time, I am making a payasam in microwave.  There are few reasons I pick stove top instead of microwave for making payasam. One is laziness, you have to be very cautious when u r planning to cook (especially with milk) in microwave and other is I have the habit of forgetting. I always prepare my tea in microwave and forget to take it out.  Today I was literally sitting in the kitchen to finish this payasam and since the quantity was less, it took just 10 mts to finish it. I have used the microwave safe Pyrex vessel for making this payasam. Please make sure you use a microwave safe vessel for cooking in the Microwave....


Ingredients:-

1. Ripe Mango - 3/4th cup (chopped)
2. Almonds -5
3. Cashews -5
4. Milk - 2 1/2 cup
5. Sugar -  3 tbsp 
6. Edible Camphor - a pinch



nuts

half cooked mango in milk

Mango & Nuts Mix with Milk

Mango Nuts Payasam

First cook the almonds and cashews with 1/4 cup of water for 2 minutes.  Let it cool. Peel the skin off from the almonds and grind both into a fine paste. Keep the paste in the same mixie jar. In the mean time, put the mango 1/4 cup of milk in a vessel and microwave it for one minute. Let it cool.  Now put the mango chunks along with the grounded nuts and grind it. Now transfer it to the same vessel where the milk is. Microwave it for one minute. Stir it in between. Now add 2 cups of milk and microwave it for another 2 minutes (since the qty was less, it just took 2 mts for the raw smell of mango and nuts to go). Take it out and stir it nicely. Add the sugar, edible camphor and the remaining milk and microwave it for another one minute.  Your payasam is ready to serve hot.  Since i have used nuts in it, I did not garnish it at the end and no ghee is used. As I said earlier, this payasam goes to Srivalli's MEC Potluck Party event

Happy Navrathri!!!

HAPPY NAVRATHRI TO ALL MY BUDDY BLOGGERS!!!

Hope you guys are having fun with all those wonderul dolls. Kolu is one of my favorite Indian festival where we get to see lots and lots of beautiful dolls. This year I got some help from my girls cleaning up the dolls, setting kolu padi, giving manjal kumkumam to friends etc. Since I had to go get thamboolam from my friend's place, I am doing sundal & sweet on every other day and the remaining days, I just use white rice for neivedhyam. Yesterday I made Kadala paruppu sundal & Rava Kesari for neivedhyam. On sunday I made Garbanzo sundal and aval Payasam. I am sharing the recipes of kadala paruppu sundal and rice flakes payasam here cos I have already posted the recipe for rava kesari and Channa sundal.

Kadala Paruppu Sundal:-

Ingredients:-

1. Channa dhall/Kadala Paruppu - 1 cup
2. Red chillies - 1 or 2 (acc to taste)
3. Salt to taste
4. Shredded coconut - 1 tbsp
5. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
6. oil - 1 tsp
7. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
9. Curry leaves -few
   

Soak dhall for an hour. Pressure cook it upto one whistle. Dhall should not be over cooked. Other wise it will be mushy. Once the pressure is released, drain the dhall and keep it aside. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall and red chillies to golden brown. Now add the cooked dhall to it and mix it well.Add salt and asafoetida powder and mix it. Turn off the stove and sprinkle the coconut and garnish it with curry leaves.

Aval Rice Flakes Payasam:-

This is the first time I am trying this payasam and I found it very easy and handy. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Rice flakes - 1 cup
2. Milk - 2 cups
3. Sugar - 1 cup(acc to taste)
4. Cardamom - 1 or 2 ( powder it)
5. Edible camphor/pachakarpooram - a pinch
6. Food color - a pinch (this is optional/I used orange color)
7. Cashew - few for garnishing
8. ghee - 1/2 tsp

Soak rice flakes in water for half an hour. Drain it fully and keep it aside. Now take a thick bottomed pan and pour a cup of milk and bring it to boil. When the milk starts boiling, add the aval to it and let it boil for 3 minutes. Now add the remaining mil, cardamom, food color and pachakarpooram and let it boil for another 5 minutes. When the quantity becomes 3/4th turn off the stove and add the sugar at the end and mix it well. Fry cashew to golden brown in ghee and pour it on top of payasam. It just took 10 minutes to finish this payasam.

Chakka Pradhaman/Jackfruit Payasam/Jackfruit Kheer

Jackfruit is my all time favorite fruit. I can eat a whole bowl of ripe jackfruit at any time:). During the vishu season, in my mom's place, we used to buy two big whole jack fruit for vishu kani and after vishu kani day, my patti used to make chakka varatti(jackfruit Halwa) in a large dabba and store it. I like to eat it as Chakka varatti too. She makes chakka pradhaman with chakka varatti which always be a hit for my Patti. I saw jackfruit last weekend near our Indian grocery store. Immediately I bought it. Took out the seeds from it and used half of the fruit as side dish for curd rice(!) and I wanted to make this chakka pradhaman with the remaining. Main motivation for making this was Jaishree's post. I was so tempted after seeing her payasam. Lol...I saved it for today cos its my husband's birthday. I didn't make chakka varatti first. I just used the jackfruit direcly for making payasam/pradhaman. I got the recipe from my grandma. This is the traditional chakka payasam she makes everytime. Here goes the recipe...

Ingredient:-

1. Jackfruit Pieces - 20
2. Jaggery -according to the available quanity of Jackfruit paste
3. ghee - 2 tbsp
4. Coconut pieces - few
5. Cashew - few
6. Coconut milk/regular full fat milk - 1/4 cup (can also increase the quantity)

Jackfruit Paste:- First pressure cook the jackfruit pieces upto one whislte. Let it cool and grind it into a fine paste. If you are going to make the payasam immediately, then measure how much paste you have and take jaggery according to the ratio of 1:1 (equal amount). I made this paste on tuesday and I refrigerated this paste in an air tight container. I used it today.


When you are ready with the paste, just take equal amount of jaggery and keep it aside. Take a heavy bottomed pan, put the paste first and add 1/4 cup water to it and let it melt first. Once the paste becomes watery, add the jaggery to it and mix it well and let it boil under low flame for another 7 mts. You can see bubbles coming out. Now its time to add coconut milk or regualr milk and mix it with the ingredients and let it boil for another couple of mts. You can smell the jackfruit, jaggery and coconut. Its means payasam is ready. Now take a small pan, pre heat ghee, fry coconut pieces and cashews to golden brown and pour it on top of paysam and mix it well. Don't forget to keep on stirring the payasam otherwise jaggery will stick in to your pan.

I used regular full fat milk instead of coconut milk. Also we can add more ghee in between too. I didn't add that much ghee. I just used 2 tbsp (which is too much for my hubby dear). We can also use a lot of coconut pieces which i reduced because of my husband.

For Chakka Varatti recipe, please visit here...

Pal Payasam (Rice Pudding)

My grandma is very famous in making this payasam in our family. She never uses condensed milk or milkmaid to make this. I strictly followed her recipe today.

Ingredients:-

1. Rice - 1 cup
2. Milk (fat free + 2%milk) - 6 cups
3. Sugar - 3 cups (acc to taste)
4. Pachakarpooram
5. Cardamom - a pinch

First wash the rice and put it in a pressure cooker. Add 3 cups milk and pressure cook it under medium flame upto 5 whistles. Make sure the rice is fully mashed. When the pressure is released, open it and add 2 more cups of milk and required amount of sugar, pachakarpooram, cardamom to it and stir it continuously till everything mixes well. It takes 10 mts to get a nice consistency and aroma from milk and sugar. Now add the remaining milk and stir it for another 5 mts. Serve it hot or cold.

My grandma never use cashews or any kind of garnishing for this payasam. The taste from the milk itself will be really good. Consistency is very easy - Pour a drop of payasam on your counter top and try to draw a line in the middle with your pointer finger. Now the milk will stand still on both sides leaving a line in the middle. This is the perfect consistency. Turn off the stove immediately when you get this consistency. If its too watery, then the milk will join - it means payasam is not ready.

Sabudhana payasam

This is another dessert. Its very common in Tamilnadu Iyer families to make payasam using sabudhana. First time I made this payasam without soaking sabudhana in water. It didn't came out well. Again I tried making this payasam after soaking sabudhana in water for 3 hours. Here is the receipe.

Ingredients :-

1. Sabudhana - 1 cup
2. Milk - 4 cups (preferably whole milk or 2% milk)
   
3. Sugar - 2 or 3 cups (acc to taste)
4. Cardamom powder - a pinch
5. Pacha karpooram - a pinch

First Soak sabudhana in water for 3 hours. After three hours wash it and pressure cook it with 2 cups of milk, upto 3 whistles. After opening the pressure cooker, add the remaining milk and turn the stove to low. Let it cook for another 15 mts. Stir it every two minutes make sure nothing it burnt:) Now add the sugar and let it cook for another 5 mts. Turn off the stove. Finally add cardamom powder and pacha karpooram to it and close the lid. After 5 mts. open the lid. Now payasam is ready to serve.

If you like to garnish it, fry few cashews and raisins in ghee, to golden brown and pour it on top of the payasam.

Semiya Paayasam

Here is another dessert... Semiya - Vermicelli, a kind of pasta from which we can make upma, payasam, vermicelli bagalabath etc. Here is the receipe for semiya payasam.

Ingredients:-

1. Semiya - 1 cup
2. Milk - 4 cups (whole milk or 2% milk)
   
3. Sugar - 3 cups (acc to taste)
   
4. Cardamom powder - 1 or a pinch
   
5. pachakarpooram - a pinch
6. Cashews - 6
7. ghee - 1 tsp

First take a pan, preheat a drop of ghee and fry the semiya(vermicelli) to golden brown. Keep it aside. Now take another pan, pour milk, if you want you can add a cup of water with milk and bring it to boil now add vermicelli to it and cook it in a slow flame for 7 mts. Now add sugar to it. Turn the stove to very low. Since the sugar will release some water, there is no need to add water or milk along with sugar. Stir it every two mts. Add the cardamom and pachakarpooram to it and turn off the stove when the vermicelli is fully cooked. Now payasam is readyIn the ghee pan, roast the cashews to golden brown. Add it to the payasam.

If needed, you can also add raisins, we have to roast it along with cashews and add it to the payasam. I personally feel, adding raisins to these type of payasam(where we add sugar) will disturb the taste of milk and sugar.