Wheat Payasam (Kerala Style)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 
Day 23: W for Wheat Payasam

I went straight to Rajani's blog for today's letter. She did an A-Z Kerala Sadya recipes for one of the previous mega marathons and I knew she will have the perfect dish with the letter W. Rajani didn't disappoint me, this Wheat payasam, Kerala style with coconut milk was so decadent and delicious.

This payasam is made with cracked wheat or broken wheat, sweetened with jaggery and simmered in coconut milk. I used fine bulgur wheat and it worked just perfect for this recipe.

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Sihi Bella (Sweet Poha with Jaggery)

I made this simple sweet poha dish along with lemon rice for my daughter's birthday. Recently I made a sweet dish poha and jaggery, but that one is more like a payasam but this one is a dry-ish preparation.

This dish can be made in no time, getting the jaggery to melt is the only time consuming part. I used powdered jaggery to make things easy for me, if you are using regular jaggery, then make sure to powder it well. Also using fresh grated coconut is important because dried or frozen coconut is too dry for this dish.

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Rajgira-Red Poha Kheer (Vegan recipe)

Today is second friday in Sravan masam when 'Varalakshmi Vratam' is performed. I did my pooja too today, thanks to my mom for her help :-)

This kheer or payasam recipe is from a Telugu cooking show, it is very healthy with no refined ingredients. This kheer is made with rajgira or amaranth grains, red poha and jaggery.

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Sweet Ragi Dosa (Sweet Finger Millet Crepes)

Blogging Marathon# 50: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Sweet Ragi Dosa from Suganya's recipe here.

For the final day of 'Bookmarked recipes -- Ragi', I made these sweet ragi dosa from Suganya's blog. I made these few years ago and have been wanting to make them again for a while. It took me all this while to make these yummy dosas again.

Ragi flour has a nutty, earthy taste and the combination of ragi and jaggery is a definite hit. These sweet dosas are flavored with a hint of ground cardamom making these taste more like a dessert. They tasted like crepes to me and I almost felt like drizzling chocolate syrup on top, but controlled myself and drizzled some ghee, sprinkled some chopped walnuts on top instead.

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Sweet Pongal (Bellam Pongali)

The second dish I made for Sankranthi is this 'Sweet Pongal/ Bellam Pongali'. This recipe is from Chandra Padmanabhan's Dakshin cookbook. Pongal, both sweet or savory, are traditionally made for Sankranthi.

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Limeade with Brown Cane Sugar (Agua de Papelon)

Blogging Marathon# 46: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Lemon/ Lime Recipes
Dish: Agua de Papelon (Limeade with Panela/ Jaggery)

For the final day of 'Lemon/ Lime recipes', I was thinking of making something sweet. But I'm not a big fan of lemon flavored desserts -- I prefer vanilla or chocolate flavors. As I was looking through 'Viva Vegan' cookbook, I found the recipe for a Limeade with Panela or South American unprocessed cane sugar.

I bought a slab of panela a while back but totally forgot about it until I found this recipe. Papelon or Panela (as it's called in Venezuela and Colombia) is produced by cooking the juice of freshly squeezed sugar cane down to a solid, crystallized mass. I wasn't sure how it would taste because it was really dark in color, I thought it will have a molasses-ish taste but I was pleasantly surprised that it tasted just like jaggery (our own unprocessed cane sugar from India).

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Bellam Payasam (Dairy-free Rice Pudding with Jaggery)

Blogging Marathon# 43: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Navarathri -- Festival Special

Dish: Bellam Payasam (Dairy-free Rice Pudding with Jaggery) 

For the second day of Festival special, I have a dairy-free rice pudding recipe made with jaggery. Bellam payasam was one of the dishes that is made during navathri. I wasn't sure how this was different from bellam paravannam. As I was discussing this with my mom, she remembered a similar sweet preparation that was made by one of my neighbors, it was made with just jaggery and rice -- no milk is added. Since my husband is milk-phobic, my mom decided to make this dish for him.

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Foxtail Millet Payasam (Korrala/ Thinai Payasam)

Blogging Marathon# 42: Week 1/ Day 1
Theme: All about Millets
Dish: Foxtail Millet Payasam (Korrala Payasam/ Thinai Payasam)

We are getting ready for our upcoming summer vacation to India. My son's been talking about this trip for weeks now and he definitely wants to go to McDonald's and get his Happy Meal toy. I'm excited too to visit my family and spend time with my mom. Shopping is also on my to-do list.

So for the final day of this week's marathon, I made a dessert with foxtail millet. This dish is the millet version of paravannam or rice pudding. I cooked the millet in water and added some whole milk to give some richness to the dish. I used jaggery and a little bit of sugar to sweeten it.

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Gojju Avalakki/ Huli Avalakki/ Tangy Poha

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Unused BM# 39 posts
Dish: Gojju Avalakki

I was very confident that I had this week covered and wasn't even worried about it until a few days ago. I thought I had lot of posts in the drafts but I didn't realize that I used most of them up for CCChallenge (this and this in particular). So I looked through the papers where I jotted down my list of states and dishes to make for BM# 39.

My husband studied in Davangere, Karnataka and he always mentions the different dishes that Kannadigas make with poha and murmure. I wanted to try a different poha dish from Karnataka, but thought that would be too simple and also I had planned made Indori Poha for Madhya Pradesh, finally ended up making Pathir Pheni for Karnataka. 

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Mango Pachadi (South Indian style Sweet Mango Chutney)

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Mango Mania
Dish: Mango Pachadi

As I was thinking for recipes to make for this weeks theme, I saw this sweet mango pachadi as part of Tamil Nadu thali on both Sandhya's & Jayanthi's blogs. It sounded sweet, tangy and spicy. I had some chopped mangoes in the freezer and I went ahead and made this chutney. It tasted great with white rice, curd rice and even roti.

The jaggery I used was a little dark that made the chutney a little darkish instead of the golden color in Sandhya's and Jayanthis blogs. Taste was however right on point.

Recipe from Sandhya's recipe:

Ingredients:

Mango - 1 large, peeled, deseeded and diced

Jaggery (or brown sugar) - ½cup, grated (adjust as per taste)
Sugar - 2tbsp

Green Chili - 1 small, finely chopped
Mustard seeds - ½tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Cook mango pieces with some water until cooked through and tender.
• Add jaggery and sugar, mix well and bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the mixture thickens, about 4~5 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Heat 1tsp oil in a small saucepan, add the mustard seeds and green chilies. Once the seeds start to splutter, add the oil to the mango mixture and mix well. Enjoy!!

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked up today for BM# 40.

Also linking to Fabulous Feast# 14, being hosted this week by Valli & Prachi.

Orissa -- Mitha Khechudi & Mitha Dali

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 21
State: Orissa
Dish: Mitha Khechudi & Mitha Dali (Sweet Khichdi with Sweet Dal)

Today we are going to Odisha, formerly known as Orissa, located in the east coast of India. Orissa shares a border with Andhra Pradesh, but I never had a chance to visit it. My dad went there for work years ago and brought back a souvenir from Konark Sun Temple. I've seen his pictures at Puri Jagannath temple and Bhubaneshwar. That's the most I knew about Orissa.
Cuisine: Odisha has culinary tradition spanning centuries. I was really surprised to read that rasgulla actually originated from Odisha, I always thought it was from Bengal. Also Kheer or rice pudding, that is relished all over India, also originated in Puri 2000 years ago.
Oriya cuisine is rich and varied and relies heavily on local ingredients. The flavors are usually subtle and lightly spiced, unlike the fiery curries typically associated with Indian cuisine. Only 6% of the population of Odisha is vegetarian. Oriyas are very fond of sweets and no Oriya meal is complete without the dessert course at the end.
Specialties: Dali, Dalma, Khechedi, Mittha Dali, Pakhala, Chena Poda, Dahi Bara, Kalakand etc.

Today's Dish(es): After reading about the Oriya cuisine, I initially planned on making a dessert. But after making quite a few desserts for the marathon, I decided against it. I wanted to make something simple, yet traditional and authentic to Orissa. So after a lot of searching, I found this Oriya blog, Turmeric Kitchen, by Jagruthi. She has a ton of traditional dishes and I picked two that were simple and easy to make.

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Instant Mango Pickle with Mustard & Jaggery for ICC

This month's Indian Cooking Challenge is a quick and easy to make 'Instant Mango Pickle with Mango & Jaggery'. Varada shared her mom's pickle recipe for all of us to try.

I made it yesterday and it tasted great. I made panchadhara avakaya with sugar and roasted mustard and fenugreek seeds. But this pickle has jaggery for sweetness and the spices used are not roasted. The pickle was not overly sweet, it is subtly sweet and you can definitely taste it in the background but it is not overwhelming. My husband's been eating it for every meal since I made it :-)

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Unniyappam/ Unni appam (Kerala Style Banana Pancakes)

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Regional Dishes - Course Specific
Dish: Snack --- Unniyappam/ Unni Appam

For Day 3 of BM# 35, I wanted to try any authentic breakfast dish from Kerala. After looking through the google search results for Kerala Breakfast recipes, Appam looked very traditional and authentic. But after seeing a couple of you tube videos, I decided it's not time for me to make appam. We are currently experiencing bitter cold temperatures and I'm sure the appam batter is not going to ferment to make soft & fluffy appams. So I went back looking for other options to make.
Then I came across these Unniyappams/ Unni appams. Saw a youtube video and the recipe looked simple enough to make. I already have a few bananas riping away, so thought this is a good use for those too.

Unniyapam is a traditional Kerala sweet that is offered as prasad in temples and is also served as snack. These can be made by soaking and grinding raw rice, but lazy that I am I found a recipe that uses rice flour instead. I also used much less oil than showed in the you tube video. I skipped the traditionally used coconut bits because my son is not a fan of coconut.

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Atte Ka Halwa (Wheat flour Halwa)

The second dish I made for this month's International Food Challenge is Atte Ka Halwa. Big Thanks to our host Manjula for introducing us to these delicious Marwadi dishes. I really enjoyed making this quick and easy halwa. It has a chewy texture and melts in the mouth. 

We are all sweet lovers in the family, so the quantity of jaggery added to the halwa was less and it was not quite sweet for our taste buds. Next time when I make this halwa I will probably add 2~3tbsp more jaggery. But all in all this is a yummy halwa that I have been snacking on straight out of the fridge.

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Jonna Pindi Kudumulu (Jowar Modak)

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter J

Theme: A-Z Vegetarian Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: Jonna Pindi Kudumulu (Jowar Modak)

Letter J stands for fruit like Jampandu (Guava) and I can't seem to think of any vegetable name that starts with 'J'!!!!!! J stands for Jonna Pindi/ Jonna Rawa (jowar flour/ rawa). Jonna or jowar or sorghum is a healthy grain that is now slowly being used more and more because of its health benefits. 

J also stands for snack items like crunchy Janthikalu.

For today's J dish I decided to make kudumulu or modak with jonna pindi or jowar flour. I saw this recipe on a Telugu cooking show. I was skeptical on how these would taste, because I've always used jowar in savory preparations and never in sweet preparations. I was pleasantly surprised how tasty these kudumulu came out to be. They had a very earthy and sweet flavor that was very addictive.

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Erra Gummadikaya Pulusu (Andhra style Pumpkin Stew)

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter E
Theme: A-Z Vegetarian Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: E for Erra Gummadikaya Pulusu (Andhra Style Pumpkin Stew)

I thought E to be one of the hardest letters to find dishes for. I found the recipe with Erra Gummadikaya aka pumpkin aka thiyya gummadikaya in 'Cooking with Pedatha' cookbook. This is a very hearty stew with a variety of veggies and can easily feed a crowd.

I used pumpkin (erra gumamdikaya), eggplant (vankaya) and potato, but other veggies like bottle goud, drumsticks, sweet potato are also typically used in this preparation.

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Chimmiri Undalu (Sesame-Jaggery Balls)

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter C
Theme: A-Z Vegetarian Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: C for Chimmiri

C stands for a number of veggies like Chamadumpa (arvi), Chilagadadumpa (sweet potato) and so on. C is also for some very traditional dishes like Chalimidi and today's Chimmiri. Chimmiri is a very simple preparation with just 2 main ingredients.

I was talking to my mom about this series and was asking her about what to make for letter 'C'. She mentioned 'Chimmiri undalu'. These are made for Nagula chavithi, I remember eating them, but never made them myself. So my mom gave me the recipe. I wasn't sure if these sesame-jaggery balls where any different from nuvvulundalu or ellai urundai, so googled and found that most of the other sesame balls where made with roasted sesame seeds, but this one is made with raw sesame seeds.

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Chana Dal Payasam (Bengal Gram Dal Kheer)

Blogging Marathon# 29: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Pick 2 Ingredients & Cook from a Book
Ingredients/ Cookbook: Chana Dal & Jaggery/ Dakshin 
Dish: Chana Dal-Coconut Payasam

Dakshin -- Vegetarian Cuisine from South India is one of my go-to cookbook when I'm looking for a South Indian dish. This book has many easy to make recipes mostly from Tamil Nadu and few from the other Southern states. I was hoping to find a kuzhambu or sambar recipe with the ingredients from Valli's list.

But to my surprise, I stumbled upon this Payasam (Kheer) recipe with chana dal and jaggery. It sounded different and delicious. I had all the ingredients on hand and I made it right away. I wasn't disappointed at all, this is one of the tastiest payasams I've ever made. Its creamy, not too sweet and tastes great hot, cold or at room temperature (I know because I ate it at all temperatures :-)

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Aam Panna (Green Mango Juice)

Blogging Marathon# 28: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Mango Special Dishes
Dish: Aam Panna (Panha) Raw Mango Juice

I'm used to making and drinking juices/ milkshakes and smoothies made with ripe mangoes only. So making this juice with raw green mango took me this long. I've seen recipes for aam panna (panha) on Nupur's blog, on Valli's blog and I bookmarked them to try, but kept postponing since I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Finally I took the leap and saved 1 raw mango to make this summer favorite drink.

I followed Nupur's recipe and since we like things a little sweet in our household I added a little more jaggery than recommended in her recipe. I'm so glad I finally tried it -- it's sweet, tart and oh-so refreshing. I'm sure it's the perfect drink on a sweltering summer afternoon.

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Paravannam (Paramannam/ Rice Pudding - Indian style)

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 1/ Day 4
Theme: Occasions - Birthday
Dish: Paravannam (paramannam/ Rice Pudding)

No occasion is complete without a sweet dish in any Indian household. Paravannam or Rice pudding is probably the most made sweet/ dessert on any special occasion. There are probably infinite variations to this dish and I'm sure each household has its own version of it depending on which state in India you are from.
It is a must however for birthdays. The first thing my mom would ask is if I made paravannam for any of my kids birthday, not the cake, not any other special dishes that are made. It's this simple rice pudding that signifies the occasion along with new clothes to wear :-)

My mom makes one version with just sugar and the second one with a combination of jaggery and sugar. I have the second version today. But my jaggery is very golden and didn't change the color of the dish that much.

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