Payasam (பாயாசம்) in Tamizh is nothing but kheer which is an important sweet dish during traditional lunches.In Tamil Brahmin custom whenever the lunch is served in Banana Leaf, payasam should always be served in the bottom right corner of the leaf. Also it is the first dish that is served in banana leaf. The reason behind this is to start a meal prepped during auspicious occasions on a sweeter note ☺️
It can be prepared from any of the following ingredients such as Rice, Wheat, Semolina, Vermicelli, Lentils (mainly moongdal,channadal,toordal) etc. The ingredients used are mostly available in our kitchen pantry all the time. Either jaggery or white sugar is used for sweetening the dish. The below version uses Jaggery. Also without even using condensed milk you can achieve a creamier texture. Make sure you use whole milk instead of semi skimmed milk.
In case if there are any guests coming down for an unexpected visit you can prepare this within 20 mintues. You can even store it in fridge for sometime and serve it as a chilled dessert too.
- I use jaggery powder which has almost no impurities and hence i add it directly to the dal mixture.
- Incase if you are not sure about the impurities in jaggery, then prepare a quick syrup by dissolving jaggery in 1/4 cup of water.
- Boil jaggery for 3-4 minutes and filter the impurities
- Pressure cook moongdal, channa dal together with 3 cups of water for upto 4 whistles
- Add this jaggery syrup, milk and then cardamom powder to the pressure cooked dal. Let them boil for 15 minutes at a low flame.
- Keep stirring inbetween to ensure that payasam doesn't get stuck in the vessel
- I always use a deep sauce pan and make sure the milk doesn't overflow
- In a Tadka pan, heat ghee and roast raisins, cashewnuts and add them to the payasam mix
- Moong dal payasam is ready to be served
