ARAVANA PAYASAM

Payasam popular naivedyam of Lord Ayyappa at Shabarimala.

Sharanam Ayyappa! Let’s start

Dish type: Traditional Desert

Time required: 45min

Yield: 1 bowl (200 ml approx.)

Ingredients

For boiling:

Rice                                        60 gms

Jaggery                                 120 gms

Water                                      150 ml

Ghee                                        45 to 50 gms

Edible Camphor (paccha karpoora) tiny pinch

Cardamom                            2 or 3 nos.

For garnishing:

Dry coconut  finely chopped   4-5 tsp (few small pieces)

Black til                                ½ tsp

Cashewnuts                            1 tsp

Raisins                                 2 tsps.

Directions:

Dry fry organic handpound raw rice for two mins. Stop when grains start spluttering. Add a tsp of ghee. Do not allow rice to splutter too much or turn crispy. Now add water and let it soak for 15-30min depending on the rice which you are using. Close with a lid. Let it boil. When rice is cooked, no water should remain and you should be able to mash the cooked rice with mild pressure between your fingers. Transfer rice from kadai to a vessel. Add half portion of ghee. Let ghee coat the rice well.

Now put jaggery into the kadai. Add water (quantity enough to dissolve jaggery). Boil till jaggery melts. Open or lightly crush the cardamom and add. When the syrup starts frothing, add cooked rice to it. Keep stirring till the contents in the kadai thicken (not too thick, as it will further thicken when it cools). Let the payasam cool down in the kadai a bit say 10-15 min. In the Naivedyam offering bowl, add remaining ghee, camphor. Mix well. Now transfer the payasam to offering bowl.

Now, let’s garnish. Let it look stylish!

Fry chopped dry coconut pieces in ghee. Let it turn golden brown in colour. Now add black til, cashewnuts and raisins. Add it to the payasam and mix well. The real aroma is in the garnishing !

Aravana Payasam is now ready for offering. Leave the payasam for 1-2 hrs and the ghee will thicken back. Best tastes this way.

Tete a Tete

Red rice, handpound rice, Rajamundri rice or any raw rice can be used.

Blackest possible variety of jaggery is preferred. (paak bella)

Important : Best tastes when cooked in an iron or brass kadai / pan

When jaggery melts completely on boiling, sieve if required to filter out any impurities and pour the filtered jaggery syrup back into the kadai and resume boiling.

In case too much water is left out after cooking rice, drain out the water

Can reduce the ghee, if you can compromise the taste a bit

Rice can be pressure cooked, provided it doesn’t get smushy

Recipe contributed by my dear friend Ms. Sreeja M

Recipes viewed here are a part of  "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog