Palakkad recipes

[Sowmya]

Mrs.Chitra's recipes..
Green Gram(mung dal)Payasam.
Ingredients:
21/2 cups mung dal, dry roasted
2 lb jaggery, made into a thick syrup
3/4 tbsp ghee
6 cups grated coconut(extract 2 cups thick milk & 6 cups thin milk)
1/4 cup sago
3/4 tsp dried ginger powder
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1/4 tsp cumin powder
Raisins and cashewnuts, fried in a little ghee.
Salt to taste

Method:
Wash and soak sago. Cook it in a little water and set aside. Set water in a large pot to boil, then add dal. When it is well cooked and most of the water is absorbed, add jaggery syrup. When mixture begins to thicken add ghee and keep stirring till it is reduced to half the quantity. Next add the thin coconut milk and salt. Continue stirring till it simmers then add sago, powdered spices, raisins, nuts and thick coconut milk. When payasam begins to simmer, remove from fire.

Sago rice payasam
Ingredients:
Whole milk 4 cups
Whole milk 4 tablespoons (to make a paste with sugar and custard powder.)
Sago rice 2/3 cup
Custard powder 3 heaped tablespoons
Sugar 4 tablespoons (if you like it sweeter you may add as desired)
Vanilla essence 2 drops
Ghee 2 teaspoons
Raisins 1 tablespoon
Cashew nuts sliced into pieces 1 tablespoon

Method:
Add sugar and the custard powder to the 4 tablespoon milk and mix well. Keep this aside.
Boil 4 cups of milk in a saucepan, stirring occasionally so that it won’t get burned. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the sago rice to the milk and cook it until the sago rice become translucent. Remove the saucepan from the stove, and add the sugar-custard-milk paste and mix very well. Bring this back on the stove and in low heat cook this for a few minutes. Turn off the stove and add Vanilla extract. Occasionally stir the payasam so that it won’t form a cream layer on the top.
Heat up a small pan, add the ghee and fry the raisins and the cashew nut. Fry the nuts to a golden color. Add this to the payasam.