Payasam, The Sweet South Indian Dessert. And It's Gluten Free.

   I've been having a lot of fun lately exploring some of the new products that Whole Foods sent my way. It seems that every year there are new trends in foods just the same as there are in hair, clothes, and make up. Smoking, fermenting, gluten free, and a host of other stuff I haven't yet gotten around to are the things that are looming for 2015. At least, that's what I hear.

I've smoked vegetables in hay...

...and served them with a seaweed pesto.

I've pickled and fermented...

...and yet, every year there are still more frontiers to be crossed.

   Every year I intend to get to the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, and somehow something always seems to interfere. Two years ago it was a storm that made travel difficult, last year I had the flu, and this year the Golden Gate Bridge was closed to re-do the middle barrier the very weekend I'd planned on going. So once again I missed a bunch of the fun. But when I got the offer to try some new goodies from Whole Foods Market it was like my own little mini fancy food show.

   I have to say, that I have a lot of weird stuff  (by conventional standards) in my pantry normally. It's a habit I got into when I was a kid growing up in San Francisco in a working class household where money was super tight. Food was not something one helped oneself to without permission. Hearing Alan's stories about just getting anything he wanted out of the fridge at any time he wanted blew my mind. I did not grow up in Westport Connecticut and anything in the pantry that had a piece or slice missing was going to be the subject of a lot of rigorous questioning. Think Bengazhi, only about peanut butter.

   So I devised a way of getting around the problem. I took my pocket money from neighborhood jobs like sweeping up the hair in the local beauty salon and baby sitting and took myself all over San Francisco where I would shop at any ethnic neighborhood market. I cultivated a taste for stuff that the rest of the family wasn't interested in. Stuff that was tasty and inexpensive. Stuff that I could stash in the pantry and be assured it  would not be touched by anyone but me. I cultivated  tastes that went beyond peanut butter and jelly, and once I started cooking, the world opened up. Sometimes things are exotic, but sometimes even the simplest things make a big difference, which brings me to Payasam.

   Payasam is a fabulous South Asian dessert that goes by many names. Kheer, Payesh, Khir, Payasa. It's enjoyed all over the sub-continent by every ethnic and religious group. It's a versatile dish, as it can be made with dairy, or vegan, with coconut milk, sweet with sugar or jaggery, and filled with nuts, raisins, dried fruit, saffron, semolina, vermicelli, dal or rice, nobody doesn't like Payasam. A lot of Westerners know it as a thick and delicious Indian rice pudding. I've made a lot of kheer/payasam of various types.

With dal...

With coconut milk...

With shredded bottle gourd...

With fruit and rice...

All of them were delicious. But one thing I never equated with payasam was quick and easy. In fact my kheer recipe is in Paula Wolfert's Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking. It's based on a Northern Italian Budino and it takes a while to say the least. So, when it comes to payasam, fast and easy makes for a great dessert. Since even though no one at our house is gluten intolerant a great many friends are, which was why I was so happy to get a carton of Maninis Gluten Free Pasta.

This made for a perfect South Indian style Vermicelli Payasam that was also Gluten Free!

South Indian Vermicelli Payasam

Here's What You Need:
1 cup of Maninis fresh gluten free spaghetti
2 and 1/2 cups of milk
3 Tbs of sugar
1 Tbs sweetened condensed milk
1 pinch of ground cardamom
2 Tbs of cashew pieces
1 pinch of saffron
2 Tbs chopped fresh pistachios
1 tsp ghee, unsalted  butter or coconut oil

Here's What To Do:
Melt 1 tsp ghee butter in a small saucepan.

Add in the cashew pieces and toast them gently.

When they're nice and golden set them aside.
Pour 2 and 1/2 cups of milk into a pot or pan.

Add in 3 Tbs of sugar and stir it together well.

Bring the milk and sugar mixture to a boil.

Add in 1 cup of pasta.

Stir everything around and let the pasta cook. Fresh pasta takes only a few minutes. You want your pasta soft but not falling apart mushy.  
When the pasta has softened add in 1 Tbs sweetened condensed milk...

...and 1 pinch of ground cardamom.

Stir things up until the mixture starts to  thicken a bit and then add the  cashews.

Take the pan off the heat and let it cool a bit.
The payasam will thicken in the fridge as it sits for a few hours.
Ladle it into serving dishes or bowls.
Sprinkle the top with a bit of crumbled saffron and finely chopped pistachio and serve it up!

   I love this dessert, it's sweet but not too sweet and the milk and spices gives it a lovely, fragrant flavor. As for the pasta, if you've never had a vermicelli pudding before, try it, you'll like it. Also unlike a lot of payasams, this makes up very quickly and is ready to eat after just a couple of hours in the fridge.This recipe makes 4 or 5 generous servings. Coming up next, I seem to be on a dessert kick and I'm on the fast track to a vegan chocolate mousse. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

The Diwali That Wasn't. Skip Dinner, Go Straight To Dessert.

   This has not been the easiest year for my family. My mom died in January and my dad just last month. My usual recourse to Kitchen Therapy has been spotty at best. That said, I decided I really needed to get back into the kitchen again where all things are made right, and all hash (metaphorically speaking) is settled. I decided that I'd get a jump on all the holiday cooking that lies ahead by starting with a Diwali Dinner. What better way to start cooking again than with a traditional festival of light, a triumph of good over evil, light over darkness, right over wrong. Well, someone should have told my stove. Because right in the middle of my dinner prep, with all the guests invited, it decided to give up the ghost.

   I suppose I should have been suspicious when it took an extraordinarily long time to toast my besan flour, when nothing seemed to stick together or actually cook through. At first I thought it was just me. I've been upset, the family has been in mourning. I've been eating out, a terrifying amount of stuff I normally wouldn't eat, at hours I never eat. I was out of practice, my kadhai didn't feel like my own. Something was wrong and I blamed myself. Doh. I should have noticed my burners. The rat brain that powers my stove's computer (or whatever it is that makes it work) had gone round the bend. The burners worked just fine, except when there was an actual pot on them. That was why nothing was getting cooked, or cooked correctly.

   I wound up unable to cook my Mushroom Dum Biryani, my Palak Paneer, (I did manage to get the paneer cheese made) my turnip masala or my chapattis. So there I was, with a lovely table all set for feasting, a long trail of floating candles in glass, marigolds scattered over the tablecloth, thalis ready and waiting. But nothing ready to serve except dessert, and that was only because I'd made it a day earlier. Before everything went pear shaped.

   The dessert was my husband's idea. He is a chess fanatic is is eagerly awaiting the up-coming World Chess Championship from November 9th to the 28th in Chennai, India.

Defending champion	Challenger
Viswanathan Anand (IND)	Magnus Carlsen (NOR)
Born 11 December 1969 43 years old	Born 30 November 1990 22 years old
Winner of the 2012 World Chess Championship	Winner of the 2013 Candidates Tournament

   Alan has been requesting that I cook some dishes from Chennai in honor of the chess tournament. Dessert for Diwali dinner therefore was going to be Paruppu Pradhaman, aka, Chana Dal Payasam. Now most sane people who cook chana dal, do so in a pressure cooker. However, having undergone severe childhood trauma involving witnessing a canned tamale/pressure cooker interaction (don't ask) I have refused to purchase said device as an adult. Rest assured however that this recipe is easily made even if not using a pressure cooker. I'll tell you both ways. The result is a delicious sweet creamy pudding.

Chana Dal Payasam

Here's What You Need:

1 cup of chana dal
1 cup of jaggery (or dark brown sugar)
1 cup of full fat coconut milk
4Tbs of whole milk
14 cashews halved
2 pinches of powdered ginger
4 tsp ghee or melted unsalted butter

Here's What To Do:

In a pan or skillet dry roast the chana dal until it turns a golden brown.

If you are using a pressure cooker, put the chana dal in the pressure cooker with just enough water to cover it and pressure cook it for 3 or four whistles.
Note: I have no idea what this means as I don't pressure cook but those of you who do, I salute you!
For those of us who use the old fashioned pot method, put the toasted chana dal in a pot with 3 cups of water. Bring it to a boil and then turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 1 hour. You don't want the dal to get squishy, just tender enough to eat.
Set the dal aside.

Meanwhile while that is going on:
Soak the jaggery or brown sugar in warm water. The water should just cover the sugar, in other words not too much.

Heat the jaggery/sugar in the pot until it starts to thicken and get creamy.
Set it aside.
Heat the 4 tsp of butter or ghee in a skillet, when the butter is hot add in the cashews.

Fry them until they are nice and golden toasted. Set them aside.
Reheat the sugar syrup until it starts to thicken. This should take about 2 minutes
Add the cooked chana dal to the sugar syrup.

Mash the dal into the syrup.

Once the dal and sugar syrup have gotten mashed together pour in the coconut milk.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then add in 4 tbs of whole milk, and 2 pinches of ginger.

Stir everything together well. Take the pan from the fire and add in the fried cashew pieces.

You can serve this dish hot or cold. Personally I always prefer my payasam to be served warm.

Sweet, and full of protein from nuts and dal, this makes a wonderful warming dessert for those cold evenings ahead.

   That then is the tale of my failed Diwali dinner. The call is out to the stove people hopefully things will be back and working again soon. Meanwhile, I'll  see what I can whip up just using fire and a microwave. I feel like McGruber.  Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Simple Sweet Payasam Dessert...Got Milk?

 It stormed and blew all day yesterday in Sonoma. Patsy was packed off to dog camp for the day at Vintage Kennel Club. Huskys need a lot of exercise and for the last couple of weeks the dog park has been closed due to sodden turf. Our property is not fenced, and I've written before about what can happen when a Husky is in an area that's not fenced. It isn't pretty.  Just plain walks, no matter how long just don't cut it. She's used to off leash time every day for play. So a day at the dog camp seemed a good investment. Large play yards to run in, tubs of water to jump in and lots of her friends to play with.  It also seemed a good day for a dessert. Patsy got a treat, why not us?
I always look for what's at hand when making a dessert and we had plenty of milk. I'd been meaning to make some chenna cheese but got distracted, so I thought what can I do with this? Milk pudding anyone??
  I decided to make a Payasam. It's a South Indian milk pudding and there are a million varieties of it.
   The ingredient list is pretty simple and cooking time is fairly minimal. It involves about 30 minutes or so of stove time and stirring, so it's not as fast as a box of instant pudding, but it tastes a whole lot better!
  It starts as many desserts do, with Basmati rice .
 1.)  Take  1/4 cup of Basmati rice. wash and rinse it then soak it in water to cover for about 30      minutes.
  Drain the rice.
  Place it in a blender or grinder with :
2.)  2 Tbs of water  and grind to a thick paste.
 3.) Place 4 cups of whole milk in  a heavy pot or kadhai
   Bring the milk to a boil and when it is boiling add in :
4.) 1 and 1/4 cup of sugar
 5.) The rice paste
   Stir it well with a whisk , and then lower the heat and cook it down until it's reduced in volume. Keep stirring so no lumps form and it doesn't stick and burn on the bottom of the pan. About 30 minutes or so.
 6.) Add in 1 tsp of saffron dissolved in 1 Tbs of warm milk
7.) 1 tsp of ground green cardamom
8.) 1 tsp of rosewater
  Pour the Payasam into individual  small glass bowls or ramekins, or little clay pots if you have them.
9.) Sprinkle a mixture of 2 teaspoons chopped blanched almonds and 1 tsp chopped raw pistachios  on top of the pudding.
10.) Let cool  a bit and place in the fridge to chill. This dish can also be served warm as a soupy dessert pudding. Last night I served it chilled with spiced Chai.
  This is also one of those dishes where one can let the imagination run wild. Got raisins? Add 'em. Some other nut?  Toss 'em in. A bit of mango? Why not? Get creative.
  This recipe left me with 6 little ramekins of Payasam. Guess how long they're going to last.