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Saturday, August 1, 2009
POORI (The Fried, Puffed Whole Wheat Bread), Awards & a Tag

Friday, September 12, 2008
PAL PAYASAM (MILK RICE PUDDING) AND A TAG

I would like to send this recipe for Priyanka’s Festive Food Event –“Onam”. I would like to send one of the best and most liked desserts of Kerala “Pal Payasam”
PAL PAYASAM(MILK RICE PUDDING)
Kerala’s “most” famous sweet dish (dessert) can easily be the traditional Pal Payasam. If you go for a traditional Kerala-Iyer wedding, you won’t fail to notice that the Pal payasam is not only served at the beginning of the meal on the plantain leaf but also during the course of the meal in massive quantities. It is served in the beginning, as we believe that every meal must start with a sweet marking sweet beginnings, It will be served again during the course by friendly “massive serving” (they always serve a lot of payasam and keep coming back to serve you more) traditional waiters clad in their white veshtis(mundus) (The veshti is a long white/off-white(cream) cloth worn around the waist and reaching below the ankles, but in Kerala, it is usually folded half way up and tucked into the waist belt fold revealing the knees to aid in easy movements while serving) and Angavastrams(a white shawl on the shoulder) serving the Pal Payasam after the rasam course and before the yogurt course which usually marks the last course of the meal, normally the payasam is served. The waiters(or sometimes relatives) who wait upon the guests to ensure that everything is served liberally and the guests are happy and satisfied usually pour the payasam from huge ladles onto the banana leaf. The guests usually relish this delicacy by trying their best not to allow it to cascade out of the banana leaf, it would be a scoop (pushing it with your palm) and a lick action….first the payasam must be deftly scooped with the hand and then licked or slurped out of it….and I have seen people enjoying it so much, although I prefer mine in a kinnam (a small bowl) as I don’t like the sweet to mix with the salted remnants of the sambhar or rasam after which course the payasam is usually served. Nor do I like the sweet remnants of the payasam stuck to my elai (plantain leaf) which will spoil the taste of my thair chadam (curd rice / yogurt rice). But I know people who would swear by how it tastes when eaten right out of a banana leaf….so slurpy and so yummy, tickling and tantalizing your taste buds.
All payasams are generally made in the Urali (a traditionally used wide mouthed flat & thick bottomed pan) and they are stirred and stirred until they get a faint pink color.
PAL PAYASAM
Ingredients:
Milk – 1 and ½ litre
Rice - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom Powder – a teaspoon
Cashewnuts - 1 tbsp broken into slivers
Raisins – 1 tbsp
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Method:
Boil the one litre milk in a vessel and once boiled remove from fire.
Take the half litre milk in separate vessel. Add washed rice to the boiling milk and cook for 5 to 10 minutes stirring once in a while. If the rice gets cooked in the milk slowly, the payasam tastes better , you must cook the rice till it is soft and mashed well,
but if you want to quicken your cooking time,
Add your washed rice and half litre milk in the cooker and cook upto 2 whistles(or as per your normal rice cooking time). Once this rice is cooked.
Take an Urali, add the rest of the milk i.e the boiled one litre milk and the cooked rice and milk and keep stirring constantly.
Add sugar and stir till it is dissolved. Keep stirring on a low flame till the Payasam gets a faint pink colour. Once done, remove from fire.
In a small pan. take some ghee, fry the cashewnuts, raisins and cardamom powder and pour on top of the Payasam.
Your Pal Payasam is ready.
This is a Quick recipe, as using condensed milk reduces the cooking time of the Payasam.
Ingredients
Milk -1 Litre (since we are using condensed milk, we can reduce the quantity of milk)
Condensed Milk ½ Cup
Rice -1 Cup
Sugar - 1 Cup
Cardamom Powder – a teaspoon
Cashew nuts 1 tbsp broken into slivers
Raisins – 1 tbsp
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Method
Cook rice in pressure cooker till 1 whistle. In an Urali, Take the milk, add the cooked rice and sugar and stir till the sugar is dissolved. Add the condensed milk. Keep stirring on a low flame till the Paysam gets a faint pink colour. Once done remove from fire.
In a small pan take some ghee, fry the cashewnuts, raisins and cardamom powder and pour on top of the Payasam.
Your Pal Payasam is ready.
Tip : Since condensed Milk is already sweet, the sugar can be reduced to ½ a cup, as many people don’t like very sweet Payasam. Also after adding the condensed milk, if you feel more sweet is required u can always add sugar and stir till it dissolves. I always recommend the taste and cook method.
TAG
Priti of Indian Khanna has tagged me '7 Facts about me'. Thanks dear for tagging me. We come to know a lot about our fellow bloggers through these tags.
Here are the rules
(a) List these rules on your blog.
(b) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog.
(c) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
I am a people’s person. I love to have a lot of people around me always.
I love my family.
I am traditional as well as modern. I love to wear a saree and adorn jewelry and at the same time love to wear western clothes.
I will rush to help people no matter what
I am addicted to 2 cups of tea a day and badly addicted to the internet.
I love reading romance, Enid Blyton fairy tales until now and comics(there’s a kid in me still).
I like listening to music whether it be Kenny G, The Cure or Fusion Bhajans or M.S. Subbulakshmi.
I would love pass along this tag to Usha, EC, Sireesha, Sagari, Raaji, Sowmya and Kitchen Flavours
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
BRILLIANTE WEBLOG AWARD, ROCKING GIRL BLOGGER AWARD & MeMe

Lore,Purva, Johanna, Usha and Roma
Lakshmi thinks Iam a Rocking girl blogger and I want to let her know that she rocks too.
BOOKY MEME
And now coming to the Meme
Sheetal has passed me The Booky Meme.
The rules of the tag are as follows:
* Pick up the nearest book*
Open to page 123*
Find the 5th sentence*
Post the next three sentences*
Tag 5 people and acknowledge the person who tagged you
Ok here it goes......
the nearest book is 'Sleepytime Stories and Rhymes
and on page 123, is "Alice in Wonderland"
5th Sentence is "Call the first witness!" said the king."
1. And to her Great Surprise,
2. The white rabbit called, " Alice!"
3." What do you know of this ?" asked the King.
And I'm passing this booky MeMe to
Priti, Purva, Usha, Suma and Vedamurthy
Monday, July 21, 2008
TAGGED!!!!!!!!
Illatharasi tagged me:
What is Tagging?
Everyday there is something new buzzing in the blogging world and when I was tagged I was not sure whats tagging all about.
Here is my(Sukanya's) explanation for tagging
"Many people read your blog, some stumble upon it by chance and some are referred to it. Then there are fellow bloggers, some of whom we may have met and some whom we haven’t met, but they visit your blog, leave comments on your posts on a regular basis and you do that for their blog too.
When I was tagged I wanted to know what tagging was all about, so according to me Tagging is letting people know more about yourself and also know more about each other. It’s like a game going around the blogosphere in which bloggers are sharing five things about themselves that relatively few people know, and then tags five other bloggers. As in any game there are rules, so the rules of this game are, "At the end of the post, the player tags 5 or 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player's(the one who initially tagged them) blog". This not only helps in increasing the viewer ship of your blog but also helps fellow bloggers know more about you. "
Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answers.
**(The lines in Blue color are copyrighted by me, as they are my explanation for this game, the lines in red color are the rules of the game.)**
Here are the 5 questions, which I must answer and pass this tag to 5 more people
Q.1- What was I doing ten years ago?
I was working with British Airways, Mumbai, India
Q.2- Five things on Today's "To do" list.....
Prayers
Cooking
Exercise which is always there in my “To do” list but always gets ignored
Blogging
Eating and Sleeping ofcourse
Q.3- I am addicted to......
My House
My kids
Cooking
My laptop
Aromatherapy
Q.4- Things I would do if I were a billionaire.....
I will fulfill my husband’s dreams (which includes all the material things – a big car(sleek), a wonderful home, trips abroad etc etc), start a restaurant serving organic food grown in my organic farm.
Q.5- Places I have lived ...
Mumbai, Singapore, Chennai, Pune, would love to live in Thailand
I am tagging ......
Indian Food Rocks ,Sowmya , Bicks, Sid and Spice of Life
Thanks Illatharasi and hope the ball is kept rolling.