Sunday, January 2, 2011

Paal Payasam

Wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous new year. Let’s start the year on a sweet note.
Payasam is a traditional South Indian Sweet. No feast or festivity is complete without a payasam, be it a birthday, a wedding day, or any festival. The first thing that is prepared is the payasam. There are different kinds of payasams like Nei Payasam, Semiya Payasam, Ada Pradhaman, Parippu Pradhaman, the list continues. But surely Paal Payasam is the king of them all.
I dedicate this recipe to my mother in law, as she is the one who taught me this simple but delicious recipe.



Ingredients                                         Makes 3- 4 small cups

  1.  Milk – ½ litre
  2.  Rice – 1 fistful (yes that is the measurement, double the quantity of rice in case of using 1 litre milk)
  3.  Sugar – 150 gms


Method

Wash rice thoroughly in water, 2 to 3 times. Drain the water completely. Now pour ½ liter milk to this. Do not add any water. Now, place this in a pressure cooker close it and place the whistle. The payasam should cook on low flame from the beginning for about 30 to 45 mins. Turn off heat. After the cooker cools down, remove the vessel from the cooker, you will  find that the milk has turned a nice pink color. Now add the sugar (Adjust sweetness according to taste) and keep stirring for about 10 to 15 mins on low heat.
Paal Payasam is ready. Traditionally no garnishing is done. If required cashews and raisins can be added. (The green leaves in the pic are tulasi leaves added for neyvedyam purpose:-) Serve this Payasam hot or cold. I prefer it hot though.
Do try this recipe and let me know how it turned out.

6 comments:

Lalitha said...

Hi - I tried the paal payasam recipe today and it came out really well. It was the perfect end to a sumptuous feast I had made for Vishu kani today. Also Used your thayir pachadi recipe to make it with banana stem and that turned out great too. I regularly look up your blog when I am making palakkad chamayal.

I love your simplistic and clear style of writing recipes.

Keep blogging your recipes... its so useful for palakkad iyyers like myself to learn to cook and enjoy the amazing taste that our cuisine has.

Happy new year to you!

Prithvi said...

Hi Kaveri....just a question....should we let the cooker give out whistle....of yes how many approximately?

Kaveri Venkatesh said...

Hi Prithvi
Place the weight/whistle on the cooker vent, and cook on lowest flame. No whistle should come. Cook for around 40 to 45 minutes

Unknown said...

Hi kaveri,

I tried this recipe but the milk curdled and spoiled the payasam. How to stop that from happening? I kept for 30 mins only.

vilayanoor said...

It is likely that the milk curled due to some impurities in the cooker or something that came in contact with the payasam accidentally. Ensuring the cooker is washed, preferably with hot water and a good dishwashing liquid, a couple of times, is probably a good idea.

Sudha sreedhar said...

Tried this payasam and tasted very good like marriage caterer's payasam... thx for the recipe...

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