Let’s start with paal-payasam. This is basic sweet that you can expect at any south-Indian’s house during marriages, festivals or on any other special occasion. Growing up whenever my mom made payasam I hated payasam. During school days gulab-jammun or rasagulla were some of my favorite sweets. I somehow got the idea that making gulab-jamun was laborious (Reason being it tasted very good :)). After moving to US, I learnt making gulab-jammun and after few attempts the love for eating gulab-jammuns vanished. I learnt making better tasting sweets and realized that gulab-jammun was a lazy-bum’s sweet. But now let it be any occasion like my daughter's birthday or Tamil new-year the first sweet I make is paal-payasam. The love for tasting paal-payasam may go away but still paal-payasam is one of our traditional sweet. Here goes my mother-in-laws recipe.
Ingredients:
Milk - 2 liters approximate
Sugar - according to the taste.
Rice - 1/4 cup (oru piddichu)
Cardamom
Cashews & raisins
2 tsp ghee.
I make mine in cooker itself so that I need not babysit my payasam. Take a tall vessel and fill it with milk and rice. Wash the rice before you add it to the milk. The milk should not exceed the half the level of the vessel as it needs room for boiling. If the milk exceeds the half the level of the vessel it might overflow. Also throw in a big-spoon for the stirring action and close the cooker. After one whistle now reduce to heat to low and keep it going for 45 mins to 1 hr. The heat should be very low and you should not get any whistle at least for next half an hour. After couple of whistles switch off the cooker. After opening the cooker stir in the sugar according to the taste. Break the cashews into pieces and fry them in ghee and add it to the payasam. Now add the fried raisins and cardamom powder to the payasam. As the milk reduces in the cooker the payasam gets orange color (evaporated milk color). If you feel that the consistency of the payasam is not thick enough, let it go for couple of minutes over the stove and keep stirring. You can serve it hot or chilled. Enjoy.
