Elegant Desserts For Perfect Indulgence!

Aravanai or Neippayasam - Ayyappante Ishta Payasam.

This is a traditional Devi Pooja offering in Kerala.

There are 2 versions - with & without moong dhal.

First versions is with dhal & this recipe was given by Amirthanandamayi Mutt people, when we had their puja at home.

Raw rice ½ cup

Moong dhal ½ cup

Ghee ½ cup

Jaggery 3 cups

Copra pieces ¼ cup

Chopped cashew ¼ cup

Kismiss ¼ cup

Sugar candy ¼ cup

Grated coconut ½ cup

Lightly roast moong dhal till a nice aroma comes & the colour changes.

Wash rice & dhal together & add to 2 cups of water in a pressurepan.

Close the cooker, keep the weight & cook for 2 whistles.

Wait for it to cool & in that time add ½ cup water to jaggery & heat on a low flame stirring continuously till the jaggery dissolves completely.

Strain & add to the rice-dhal mixture & start cooking it adding ghee little by little.

When the mixture is cooking add the copra fried in ghee.

When the whole mixture becomes a mass, add cashew & kismiss fried in little ghee.

Remove , add sugarcandy & freshly grated coconut.

Variations:
This version is commonly called Aravanai.

It can be made only with rice without adding dhal.

You can cook the mixture for just one whistle & if thus made, rice will be slightly grainy.

You can add 1 cup of ghee ( or little more )& 4 cups of jaggery for every cup of rice.

 

Rice-Coconut-Jaggery Payasam - The standard Payasam of TamilNadu

Rice ( any variety) - 2 tbsp

Freshly grated coconut - 2 tbsp

Jaggery - ¾ cup

Milk - 1 cup

Cashews, chopped - 1 tbsp

Raisins - 1 tbsp

Ghee - 2 tsp

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Wash & soak rice for 1 hour.

Drain, grind fine with coconut adding required quantity of water.

Mix jaggery with 1 ½ cups of water & let boil.

Strain to remove impurities & boil again.

Now add the paste, stirring continuously with the other hand, making sure that no lump is formed.

Rice paste will easily form lumps & this has to be carefully avoided.

Let simmer for a few mts to allow the paste to cook well.

Add cardamom & remove.

Add milk & stir for a few mts to prevent “breaking” – refer tips on payasams.

Heat ghee, fry cashews & raisins & add.

 

Chanar Payesh - Dhalo Aschen ? - Greetings from Bengal !

Milk - 1 litre

Paneer - 250 gms

Sugar - 1 cup ( or to taste)

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Rose essence - 3,4 drops

Chopped almonds - ¼ cup

Raisins - ¼ cup

Boil milk.

Mince paneer fine or grate fine.

Add sugar & paneer to boiling milk & thereafter lower the flame to minimum.

Stir regularly, whisk gently.

Best is to keep it in the microwave in lo setting.

When the desired consistency is reached add cardamom powder, essence, chopped almonds & raisins.

Remove & stir continuously for a few mts.

Cool & serve.

Thickens on cooling.

Raisins can be omitted & more nuts of choice can be added.

This is also called Curdled Milk Payash - so the texture need not bother you !

 

Paraannam - Offered for Pooja on Fullmoon Day, specially.

This recipe is from Trivandrum, where this is offered as a naivedyam for Pournami Poojai.


This is a delicious combination of milk, jaggery & bananas.


Milk 1 litre

Rice 3 tbsp ( thin variety is preferable )

Jaggery 1 cup

Ripe bananas 2 medium

In a pressurecooker or a big pressurepan boil 1 litre milk.

When it starts boiling add the washed & strained rice.

When it starts boiling again close the cooker, put the weight & immediately lower the gas.

Do not wait for the whistle.

If the cooker is not big or if the gas is high, milk is likely to overflow.

Cook for 20 mts.

Allow the pressure to drop on its own.

Open & keep ready for the jaggery syrup to be added.

In the meanwhile heat jaggery with ½ cup of water on a low flame, stirring continuously,

When it dissolves allow to boil for 5 more mts.

Then strain & add to the milk mixture.

This should not be done over fire since , then the mixture will curdle.

Both should be equally hot.

Stir for few mts continously for the blending to be smooth & perfect.

Mash (or grate ) 2 very ripe bananas&add to this.

No other spice like cardamom powder is necessary.

This is very tasty since jaggery is used instead of sugar as in palpayasam.

The photo is given below - I decorated with banana slices, after running a fork over the peeled fruit.

 

Apple Nut Dessert - Delicious topped with Ice cream.

Sugar - ½ cup

Maida - ¾ cup

Baking powder - 2 level tsp

Ghee - 1 tbsp

Sweetened condensed milk - ½ cup

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Chopped nuts - ½ cup (walnuts, cashew or both together)

Apples, peeled & cubed - 3 cups

Topping:

Brown sugar - 2 tbsp

Maida - 1/3 cup

Softened butter - 2 tbsp

In a large bowl, mix with a fork sugar, flour, baking powder, ghee, vanilla & condensed milk till well blended.

Stir in nuts & apples & mix lightly till they are completely coated with the batter.

Spread evenly in a greased square pan.

Mix the topping ingredients with a fork till crumbly.

Sprinkle over apple mixture in the pan, uniformly.

Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for about 30 35 mts till top is golden brown.

Serve warm or cold.

Spoon into dishes or cut into squares.

Serve with ice cream.

 

Sweet Potato Micro Kheer - easy to prepare, delicious to taste !

Milk - 1 litre ( preferably full cream)

Sweet potatoes, peeled and grated thin - 250 gms

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Cardamom pdr - 1/2 tsp

Almonds - 5

Pistachios - 5

Saffron - 1/8 tsp (warm & powder)

To almonds and pistachios add 1/2 cup of water in a small casserole.

Micro Hi for 1 min.

Cool ,deskin and slice thinly.

In a medium casserole Micro Hi milk for 10 mts, remove & add grated sweet potatoes.

Mix thoroughly, micro Med for 10 mts and med Low for 5 mts stirring regularly in between.

Remove, add sugar , mix well and Micro Low for 10 mts.

Add cardamom pdr and saffron.

Cool and decorate with almond and pista slices.

Chill & serve.

Grating the sweet potato thin is very important - nobody will guess what it is !

It will be like Semiya Payasam minus stickiness.

 

Idichu Pizinju Payasam - Malayalikalude Kannilunni !

Raw rice ¼ cup

Jaggery ½ cup

Sugar ½ cup

Coconut 1 big

Or

Grated coconut 2 cups

Cardamom powder 1 tsp

Dry ginger powder - 1/2 tsp

Grate coconut & extract milk in 3 stages in liquidizer increasing the water added every time to get different thickness.

1<SUP>st</SUP> milk (very thick) should be 1/3 cup, 2<SUP>nd</SUP> milk –1 cup & the very thin 3<SUP>rd</SUP> milk 1 ¼ cup.

Boil rice in 1 cup of water till it cooks soft & becomes slightly dry.

After almost all the water has evaporated add 2 tsp ghee & fry well.

Add sugar & jaggery & fry again.

Now add 3<SUP>rd</SUP> milk & boil on a medium flame for 10 mts.

Then add 2<SUP>nd</SUP> milk & boil for 5mts.

Finally add the 1st milk & remove at once from the stove, stirring thoroughly.

Add cardamom powder, dry ginger powder & mix well.

Generally cashews fried in ghee are not added for this payasam.

 

Badham Kheer - an All time, All age favourite !

It is very easy to make badham kheer in the microwave & I am giving that method here. Those who do not use microwave can do it on stovetop following the same method.

Milk - ½ litre

Almonds - 30

Sugar - ½ cup

Water - 1 + ½ cups

Cardamom powder - ½ tsp

Saffron - a pinch ( warm & powder)

Chopped nuts - 1 tbsp

In a small bowl, take 1 cup of water & add almonds.

Micro hi ( full power) for 2 mts.

Remove, cool & peel.

Grind the almponds with ½ cup of water in the mixi till fine.

Boil milk in a shallow microware for 5 mts on Hi.

Remove, add the paste, stir well & keep back in the microwave.

Cook for 5 mts on Hi & 5 mts on medium, stirring twice or thrice in between.

Remove, add sugar, mix thoroughly & micro on lo for 5 mts.

Remove & add spices.

Cool thoroughly & refrigerate.

Decorate with chopped nuts before serving.

This recipe gives the correct thickness to badham kheer which is neither thick nor thin.

It is one's option to increase or decrease the no: of almonds to change the consistency suitably.

 

Besan Payasam - Serve this for New Year & everyone will thankyou for BadhamKheer !

Besan - 2 tbsp

Ghee - 2 tbsp + 1 tsp

Milk - 2 cups

Sugar - ½ cup

Cardamom powder - ½ tsp

Cashewnuts, chopped - 1 tbsp

Raisins - 1 tbsp

Heat 2 tbsp ghee, roast besan on a low fire till a nice aroma comes.

Remove & cool thoroughly.

Add ½ cup water & mix well.

Heat milk & when it starts boiling, add the besan mixture, stirring well to avoid lumps.

When the besan has cooked well, simmer & add sugar.

Stir on a low fire till sugar dissolves.

Add cardamom powder & remove.

Heat 1 tsp ghee, roast cashewnuts & raisins.

Add to payasam .

Cool & serve.
This is very close to BadhamKheer in taste, if correctly made !

 

Mampaza Payasam - chundan mampazhame, kilichundam mampazhame

Select fleshy, juicy fruit.

There are 2 methods, one with cooked mampazam & the other with the uncooked fruit - this is called Mangola.

Consistemcy can be adjusted to individual preference.

Mampaza paysam:

Sugar quantity depends on how sweet the fruit is.

Ripe big fruit - 1 (2 medium or 3 small)

Ghee – 2 tbsp

Sugar - 3 tbsp ( more or less is optional)

Coconut - ½ cup

Add 2 cups warm water to coconut & extract milk.

Peel & chop mampazam into small pieces.

In a vessel, heat ghee & add fruit pieces.

Fry on a low fire carefully, till they start becoming soft.

Add sugar & cook on a low fire till they blend well with sugar & become mushy.

Add coconut milk & in 2,3 mts, immediately remove from stove.

Stir continuously for a few minutes till the mixture becomes homogeneous.

No flavouring is necessary, since mampaza flavour will be masked.

Mangola:

Ripe big fruit - 1 (2 medium or 3 small)

Sugar - 3 tbsp ( more or less is optional)

Cold milk - 2 – 3 cups ( depending on how thick you like it)

Peel & chop the fruit fine.

Add sugar, milk & liquidise.

Serve chilled.

Note:

In both the recipes, milk & coconut milk are interchangeable.

In the first recipe, add milk only after removing from the stove – otherwise the mixture is likely to curdle.

When serving for parties, ¼ tsp saffron, warmed & powdered and or 2,3 grains of pachai kalpuram can be added for extra flavour – this is optional.