Payasam

Grandmother’s recipe....Payasam

Grandmother is always sweet and grand! Isn’t it! Not only she tells fairy tales but also treats her grandchildren with sweets. She is always sweet like her recipes. It’s customary in our culture to celebrate birthdays with sweet payasum or kheer, specially prepared and fed by grandmothers or mothers. On birthdays I still visualize her preparing Payasam. It’s a simple delicious sweet dish. This recipe is as old as Grandmother herself and has not changed for the last two thousand years. On the day of birthday she gets very early which usually she always is and after taking bath offers Puja. She then goes to kitchen and clean it with her own hands and start preparing the Payasam. Though she is not alive today, her memory still haunts me and I still visualize her working in the kitchen preparing Payasam.

On a big vessel she pours 2 liters of pure milk and boils it on low flame. She boils and boils the milk till it is reduced to about one and half liters. It takes lots of time. Meanwhile she washes about 150 gm of good quality Basmati rice (rice with sweet aroma) and adds it into the boiling milk. She leaves it for slow boiling. She then washes some Kishmish (dried raisin), Badam (almonds) and Cashew nuts. She peels the skins of almonds and chops the Cashew nuts. She grinds some cardamom seeds. She constantly moves the milk and the rice. When the stuff becomes more condensed she adds about 250 to 300 gm of Jaggery (a coarse, dark sugar, esp. that made from the sap of East Indian palm trees) or some time when Jaggery is not available simple Sugar. After adding the Sweetener, Kishmish (dried raisin), Badam (almonds) and Cashew nuts. She simmers the mixture until it turns half of original volume and is thick and creamy. She then adds about 100 gm of Deshi Ghee (clarified butter) and stirs it for some time. She then puts the crushed Cardamom and covers it with a lid and cools it to room temperature, or refrigerate until chilled.

Payasam or Payas or Kheer is ready for the birthday boy/girl. It’s so simple, sweet and most delicious recipe like the grandmother herself? Try it!

PS: If you don’t have patience to boil the milk to condense it, add what the modern mothers would do.  Add a tin of condensed milk to boiling milk.