Idichu Pizhinja Payasam

Ending the "mother's day" series of recipes with a sweet note. This recipe for the "Idichu Pizhinja Payasam" comes from a dear friend, Bindu.

These past few days have been extremely hectic but blissfully sweet. Spending time with family in India, eating home cooked meals that include vegetables and fruits and sea food that is not available to us in the US and dealing with jet lag  has been the highlight of the trip so far.  Enjoying the malls in Bangalore, catching up with old friends, relaxing in the tranquil atmosphere in scenic Kerala, wishing deeply for the (elusive) lovely rains which turns the gorgeous greenery into something almost surreal.

Like I said earlier, this is the last post in the series where I am posting four special recipes from four special people who have been the pillars of support for us even before the inception of the blog. The first post was for the finger licking Ulli Theeyal, second one being a family recipe, which has been passed down from generations in my husband's family called Podichundaakkiya Upma, the third recipe was shared by my friend Pooja and is for a rich and creamy Fish Curry with Coconut Milk.

My dear friend, Bindu, shared her absolute favorite recipe for this dessert that her mother makes for her. And after I tried this recipe, I had no doubts in my mind as to why 🙂 .

I think at this point, it would be a good idea to hand over the blog space to Bindu to explain the taste, the story and description of Idichu Pizhinja Payasam. Drumrolls please....

This is my contribution to the Mother’s Day special edition of Framed Recipes .

Thanks Sreelatha Shenoy for this opportunity to wander around in sweet memories!

This sweet dish is a special dish that my mother (Amma) used to make for my birthday every year.

 

I cannot recall how this tradition was started. Did she intuitively realize my love for it or did I request it every year? Either way, I cannot get enough of this one. My amma used fresh coconut to extract the milk – a long and laborious process that involved using the grinding stone. She did this patiently and used the multi-step extractions of various thickness to add at different stages of the recipe. I guess the flavor of fresh coconut milk is far superior to the canned ones.

However I live in Canada and guess what? There are no coconut trees here! So over the years I have used this recipe many times and tried to make it with canned coconut milk, it never tastes the same! Mother’s touch I guess!

So here it is. I am drooling over this page now!

Idichu Pizhinja Payasam

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Ingredients

  

• ½ cup Cherupayar parippu Mung daal
• 2 teaspoon Ghee
• 1.5 cup Sarkkara jaggery; melted and strained (adjust to the desired sweetness)
• 1 can 13.5 oz/400ml Coconut milk (traditional method - extracted milk from 1 full coconut)
• 15 Fried cashews
• 10 thin slices an inch long fresh coconut slices to fry and garnish
• 4 cardamom husked and powdered.

Instructions

 

• Fry the cashews in ghee and set aside.
• Fry the fresh coconut pieces in ghee until browned lightly and set aside.
• Fry the mung dal and add half a cup of water to cook until soft.
• Once cooked, add the melted jaggery and cook over low flame until it thickens.
• Add the coconut milk and simmer.
• Add the cardamom powder.
• Garnish with cashews and fried coconut slices.