Paasiparuppu Paayasam / Moong dal kheer

Paayasam is a sweet dish which is made during occasion/festivals in southern parts of India. There are various types of paayasams that are made either with sugar or jaggery. Jaggery is considered to be healthy than using sugar. During my childhood, there has never been icecreams/pizzas/chocolates, instead these kind of paayasams are made as a snack after school.

Paasiparuppu is considered to be one of the high protein pulse. This is pretty simple yet delicious one, as there is no need to make any jaggery syrup for this and it takes no more than 10 mins to prepare this kheer. (i am little scared of handling the recipes that need jaggery or sugar syrup. :)))

Recipe:

Items required:

Moong dal - 1/4 cup
Channa dal - 1 tbsp
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup
cardamom - 3 nos powdered
Salt - a pinch
Cashew and Raisins - 8 nos
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Pre-requisites before starting to cook:

1. Powder the Elaichi with a spoon of sugar in a mixie.

2. Grate the jaggery and keep it aside. This is easier during cooking.
3. Boil and cool the milk required for this.

Method:

1. In a cooker pan, add a spoon of ghee and roast the moong dal and channa dal till they become golden brown in colour. Add water 5 times than the dal amount. If you have taken 1/4 cup of dal, add 1 and 1/4 cup of water. Close the pan lid and allow for 5 whistles.

2. Parallely place the grated jaggery in a bowl and add water such that the jaggery is immersed in it. Keep the stove in medium flame. Let it cook till the jaggery is completely melted. No need to wait for the syrup to form. Remove from flame once the jaggery is completely melted.

3. Once the jaggery water is cooled, filter it for any dirt and keep it aside.

4.  In a non stick pan, add a small amount of ghee and roast the cashew and raisins. Keep it aside.

5. Open the cooker pan and mash the dal mix a bit. Add the filtered jaggery water to it and mix them well.

6. Switch on the stove and allow the dal to cook for 2 mins with jaggery. Add a pinch of salt and powdered elaichi. Now add the boiled and cooled milk to the mix. Stir them nicely for a minute.

7. Switch off the flame and add the roasted nuts.

8. Enjoy the delicious payasam. :))

Aviyal

Aviyal is the kind of vegetable mix which is made with coconut based gravy and seasoned with coconut oil. The flavour of coconut and coconut oil makes it different from the other types of kootu varieties. This dish mainly comes from Kerala. In Tamilnadu, aviyal is preferred to be taken as a side dish for Adai. This is also considered to be one of the special recipes to be made on occasions.

Here goes the recipe:

Required:

Vegetable mix - 1 bowl (Beans, carrot, plantain, potato, drumstick, pumpkin)
Salt - according to taste
turmeric powder - a pinch
Curd - 1/4 cup

For seasoning :

Coconut oil - 2 tablespoon
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 stick

For grinding:

Coconut - 1 cup (grated)
green chilly - 2 (change according to taste. Here i added red chillies as i didnt have green chillies in stock and so you can see aviyal in red colour. Preferred is green chillies)
rice - 1 tsp
fried gram - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Wash all the vegetables. Keep a pan in the stove, add the vegetables and some amount of water for the vegetables to cook. Add a pinch of turmeric powder and half amount of salt. (remaining salt needs to be added at the end after the coconut paste is added)

2. Grind all the items (given under grinding section) to a smooth paste and keep it aside.

3. Once all the vegetables are cooked, strain the remaining water and mix the ground paste to it. Make the mix to a 'not so thick' consistency. Add the remaining salt to it and keep it in the stove. Let the paste gets cooked with the veg.

4. Beat the curd to make sure no lumps are found. Pour the curd to the aviyal smoothly and switch off the flame immediately. Mix them gently.

5. In another stove keep the seasoning pan. Add coconut oil to it. Once oil is heated, add the mustard seeds to it. Once they start to splutter, add curry leaves to it.Add seasoning to the cooked aviyal.

Serve hot with rice or adai.