Rava Paayasam / Semolina Pudding

There are so many different kinds of paayasams (sweetened porridge/pudding). Of all the paayasams that can be made, this version with semolina/rava is one of the simplest and fastest, because rava cooks in no time!

Coconut Paayasam / Thengai Paayasam

Coconut paayasam (sweet Indian porridge) is a straightforward dessert that's often prepared during special religious occasions. This is very hard to mess up, and takes no time at all to prepare. It therefore becomes the ideal dessert of choice to celebrate festivals that fall on busy weekdays.

Quinoa Paayasam

Ever since my mom laid eyes on quinoa, she's wanted to make some paayasam (sweetened Indian porridge) with it. Not sure why quinoa triggered that thought in her. But, anyway, she recently acted on it and made some simple and "healthy" quinoa paayasam to mark an occasion.

The porridge tasted really really good, not to mention it is extremely straightforward and simple to prepare! It is truly a guilt-free dessert if you use palm sugar instead of jaggery.

Carrot Kheer

Carrot kheer/paayasam is one of the easiest desserts to prepare. It's just carrot milkshake spiced with fragrant aromatic spices such as cardamom and saffron. You don't even need to know precise measurements, because you can't go wrong with this! I never measure (for once) while preparing this kheer... I just pour in some milk to diced carrots, cook them, puree them, add sugar - taste and adjust the sugar and milk and cook until everything thickens. I then throw in some saffron, cardamom, nuts and raisins and it's done. Its taste beguiles everyone into thinking you slaved over the dessert!

Ingredients: (serves 3-4)

1. 5-6 medium-large carrots, peeled and diced
2. 4 cups milk (2% works well) + a little more if needed
3. 1/2 cup sugar (or as needed depending on how sweet the carrots are)
4. 1 teaspoon powdered cardamom
5. generous pinch of saffron
6. 1 tablespoon of roasted nuts and raisins

Preparation:

1.  Pressure cook the carrots in milk for 3 to 4 whistles. Please be sure to put a stainless spoon or plate in the pressure cooker so that the milk doesn't boil over. Alternatively, you can cook the carrots in milk without a cooker. 
2. When the carrots are cooked, puree them using an immersion blender. If not, wait for the carrots to cool and then puree them. Add some more milk if needed (if the consistency is too thick), and bring it to a boil. 
3. Keep stirring to avoid the kheer from sticking to the bottom of the pan. When it comes to a boil, add saffron and sugar and keep stirring on medium heat for 10-15 minutes until the kheer reaches a consistency of your liking. You can continue cooking until the milk reduces and thickens a little. 
4. When the kheer has thickened to your liking, remove from heat and garnish with cardamom powder and nuts & raisins (if you would like)

 The kheer thickens a little more as it cools to room temperature. The kheer is best served at room temperature or chilled. 

 

Aval Paayasam

Aval is beaten/flattened rice flakes. Here is a kheer/paayasam/dessert that's often prepared during festive occasions. The recipe comes from my mother-in-law.

 Ingredients (serves 4):

1. 1/4 cup aval / beaten rice flakes
2. 3 cups milk
3. 1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (add 1/2 cup if you prefer slightly mild sweetness)
4. a pinch of saffron
5. 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom
6. 1 teaspoon ghee / clarified butter
7. few cashews and raisins

Preparation:

1. Dry roast the aval on medium heat until it slightly begins to brown. 
2. Remove from heat, and transfer to a small saucepan. Add 3/4 cup of water and cook the aval in medium heat until it is almost cooked. 
3. To this add milk and continue to cook on medium heat for about 25-30 minutes, stirring now and then and making sure the milk doesn't boil over or scald and burn. 
4. As the milk reduces, dry some cashews and raisins in a teaspoon of ghee until the cashews turn golden brown. Remove from heat and keep separately.
5. When the aval is completely cooked (test by mashing one with your fingers) and the milk has reduced a little, add sugar and continue to stir and heat for 5 minutes until the sugar dissolves. 
6. Remove from heat. Garnish with cardamom, saffron, and the fried cashews and raisins.

Serve hot, at room temperature, or chilled! 

Note: Another way to prepare this paayasam is to coarsely grind the roasted aval before cooking it in water and milk. It makes for a thicker dessert.

Almond Kheer

Kheer/Paayasam is somewhere between a pudding and a drink. It's a sweet, thickened drink. The exact consistency of it is subject to individual preference. In this variation, almond paste is cooked in milk and flavored with some cardamom and saffron.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups whole almonds (unroasted, unsalted)
2. 3-4 cups + 1 cup (whole milk or low fat)
3. 3/4 - 1 cup sugar
4. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
5. pinch of saffron
6. a few pistachios 

Preparation:

1. Blanch the almonds to remove the outer peel. Immerse the almonds in 2 cups boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse the almonds in cold water. The peel will slide right off. 
2. Grind the blanched almonds to a smooth paste by adding about 1 cup of milk (or slightly lesser). 
3. Meanwhile, bring 3-4 cups of milk to a boil in a non-stick pot. The quantity of milk depends on how thin or thick you like the kheer to be.
4. Add the almond paste to the hot milk and stir on medium heat for 30-40 minutes until the milk reduces and thickens a bit (almost to the consistency of rich soup). Keep stirring often to avoid the kheer from burning. Halfway through the cooking add saffron. 
5. Finally add sugar and stir well. Stir for another 5-10 minutes on low-medium heat. 
6. Remove from heat and garnish with nuts and cardamom powder and stir well. 

 

Serve chilled. The kheer can either be sipped from a glass or had in a bowl (depending on the consistency that you settled on). It does thicken a bit over time. The consistency of my kheer is that of a rich soup. I serve it in a cup or bowl along with a spoon so people can choose how they want to take it. 

Semiya Paayasam

Semiya (vermicelli) paayasam is a sweet and yummy pudding. Milk and sugar is reduced together with cooked vermicelli to make a lovely and festive pudding. 

Ingredients:

1. 3/4 -1 cup uncooked roasted vermicelli (broken in 1 inch pieces; Roast the vermicelli in a little bit of ghee till it turns reddish-brown)
2. 3/4 cup boiling water
3. 3 1/4 cups warm milk
4. 3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like the pudding; I usually add 2/3 cup)
5. 2 teaspoons ghee / clarified butter
6. 1 tablespoon worth broken cashew nuts (unsalted, of course)
7. 1 teaspoon raisins
8. 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg / edible camphor
9. 1/8 teaspoon saffron 
10. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan, add the vermicelli and hot water and stir on medium heat as the vermicelli softens and cooks. 
2. When the vermicelli is almost cooked and/or when there is hardly any water, add 1 cup of milk. Stir together and let the vermicelli continue to cook and stew in the milk.
3. After about 5 minutes, add 1/3 cup of sugar and stir well. Keep stewing on medium-heat.
4. After another 5 minutes, add 1 more cup of milk and the saffron. Stir well and continue to cook. 
5. When the milk reduces, add the remaining sugar and grated nutmeg, and stir well. 
6. After 2 minutes, add 1 cup of milk and stir well. After 5 minutes, check if the vermicelli is cooked and remove from heat. If not, continue to cook on low heat until it is cooked.
7. Finally, add the 1/4 cup of milk after the pudding is removed from the heat. Garnish with cardamom powder and ghee-roasted cashews and raisins.

I was told that the key to this paayasam is to alternate the sugar and milk in small batches, so that the semiya stews well and the milk reduces well to a yummy consistency. The pudding thickens as it cools. So dilute with a little bit of warm milk (if needed) before serving. The consistency of this paayasam is varied... some are watery/milky, while others are more like a traditional pudding. 

Paruppu (Dhal) Paayasam

It’s been a while since my whirlwind of posts. I always seem to work in batches and alternate between the binary states of 0 and 1 :).  To dust up this space, here is a “festive” post.

The Hindu lunar calendar recently entered a very busy phase. It is choked with festivals until the month of Marghazhi (i.e. December). In India (or rather South India), this is the time when Saree and Apparel stores advertise a million sales and tantalize the customers with attractive new designs. Oh, I miss the colorful advertisements! Every cook and sweet shop is busy preparing truckloads (yes) of favorite sweets and innovative ones that mark the occasions. From now on till Diwali, every other week will have some festival knocking on our door!

Yesterday was Krishna Jayanthi, Lord Krishna’s birthday. Lord Krishna’s fables make him an endearing God. He is supposed to have loved butter and sweets, so on his birthday, we prepare butter-rich delicacies for him. Cheedai, fried balls of rice flour and butter, is one such offering. But, as I have been warned, one needs guidance and supervision before embarking on a cheedai-making project, for cheedais are known to splutter and pop when dropped into hot oil, and have caused many unfortunate accidents. Hot oil within 10 meters of my presence is a constant source of concern for everybody, so I didn’t venture into trying cheedais. But, as mentioned before, any festival can be satisfactorily celebrated if one makes one sweet and one savory offering. One such common and widely accepted sweet is - Paayasam (sweet porridge), and a hugely popular savory item is - Vadai (deep fried patties of black gram batter).

There are many types of Paayasams, of course. But one of the most popular ones is - Channa Dhal Paayasam. You can’t come out of a wedding in our community without being served this kind of Paayasam. It is blasphemy otherwise!

I followed Meenakshi ammal’s recipe this time. It is slightly different from my mother’s and mother-in-law’s recipes, but I found it much simpler!

Ingredients

1. ¾ cup of channa dhal
2. 1 cup of sugar
3. 2 cups of milk
4. 2 teaspoons of ghee - you can’t skip this, or you’ll be offending Krishna!
5. a few broken cashews
6. a few raisins
7. a sprinkle of saffron
8. 2 teaspoons of cardamom powder

Procedure

1. Dry roast the channa dhal until it gains a bit of color. Immediately remove from heat, and soak in water for about 1-2 hours.
2. Drain the water from the soaked dhal and grind it to a paste, with as little water as possible.
3. Transfer the paste into a heavy bottomed pan. Add 2 cups of water to it.
4. Constantly stir on medium heat until the raw scent of dhal subsides. Take care to not let the paste stick to the bottom of the pan, or form any lumps
5. After about 5 minutes, add 1 cup of sugar and continue stirring constantly till the sugar is fully incorporated.
6. 5 minutes later, add 2 cups of milk and continue stirring. You may reduce the heat to low at this point. Keep stirring till everything comes to a boil.
7. Add this point, add a few strands of saffron, and cardamom powder (If you happen to have edible camphor, throw in a tiny bit of it). Stir till the saffron brings out its lovely sunset hues.
8. Fry the cashews and raisins in ghee till they turn golden brown and plump respectively. This garnish is what gives the Paayasam its unmistakable taste and scent!
9. Add the garnish of cashews and raisins to the porridge, and remove from heat.

That’s it! My mother usually adds jaggery instead of sugar, and cooks the dhal instead of grinding it. But cooking the dhal involves using the dicey pressure cooker which sometimes decides blow up, so I found this much easier. Besides, this is how I remember Paayasams being served at weddings.

The Paayasam tends to get thicker with time, so diluting it with a bit of milk and reheating it up to two days won’t hurt. A hint of this Paayasam is served at the beginning of every festive meal - a teasing teaspoon full of it finds it way to the bottom right corner of the plate (or traditional plantain leaf). It is to symbolically start the event/meal with a sweet, happy note. But in Brahmin meals, Paayasam is not had as a dessert at the end of the meal, but during the middle of the meal. After the second course, you will be served with several ladles of this sweet concoction that will decide to wildly run around the plate (or worse, the plantain leaf) and it is an art to scoop it with your palm and fingers and slurp it down! I can never do this. I will fascinatingly watch everyone around me casually make a swift nimble movement with their fingers to tame the Paayasam within their palm and relish it down, while mine will dribble down my arms (embarrassingly) or slither down my leaf, as I request to have a cup of it after meals. I am always reminded of the Panchatantra tale of the fox and the stork during these innumerable events. A fox invites a stork to dinner and serves food on a plate, in a manner that the poor stork can’t fathom to eat with his sharp bill. Hence to teach the fox a lesson, the stork invites the fox to dinner and serves him food in a tall jug from which the stork can easily pick out his dinner, thanks to his long and sharp bill, but the fox will morosely repent his mistake. Not that I intend to teach anyone a lesson! This is a nuanced way of eating/drinking that I unfortunately never learned, but I always feel out of place and very much like the stork as I attempt to gather the Paayasam with my thin, unyielding fingers :)