Thengai Payasam (Coconut Sweet Porridge)

Payasam (sweet porridge) is part of festival food. Thengai Payasam is a traditional sweet dish prepared with coconut, rice and jaggery. Coconut and jaggery combination gives a nice taste to payasam.

Coconut is known as Thengai in Tamil and as Nariyal in Hindi. Jaggery is known as Vellam in Tamil and as Gur(d) in Hindi.

Cooking time: 15 minutes other than soaking time

Ingredients

• Coconut – ½ shell
• Chopped jaggery – ½ cup
• Basmati or any rice – 1 table spoon
• Cashew nuts and raisins – few
• Cardamom – 4 no
• Ghee – ½ tea spoon

Method

• Soak rice for 15 to 20 minutes and drain; grind soaked rice, coconut, cardamom to a fine batter.

• Boil jaggery in one cup of water till raw smell leaves, filter and keep it; heat a pan with ghee, fry cashew nuts and raisins separately and keep.

• In the same pan, boil one cup of water; when this starts boiling add ground paste; add some water and stir continuously; as it is cooked, the colour and texture will change and if you touch with wet finger this won’t stick in your finger.

• Now add boiled and filtered jaggery water; adjust consistency as per your choice and cook for few more minutes; garnish with cashew nuts and raisins.

• Serve hot or cold.

Tips

• Use fresh coconut and adjust sweetness by varying the quantity of jaggery.