Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Cashew And Coconut Payasam



Entertaining is a pleasure. Entertaining foodies is even more of a pleasure. I love to cook, call people over and feed them. I like it when I see people relishing food. We are a foodie family. My father is an enthusiastic eater, but doesn't cook beyond the occasional sambhar or upma when my Mom is away. He keeps joking that its a good thing that my place is quite a distance from their place - dreads what would happen to his weight if I kept feeding him my experiments. When we were kids, he would make sure he got us snacks to eat even on short journeys . He would make sure my picnic lunch during my school days ended with a bar of milk chocolate. Brother loves to eat and does cook rarely, sometimes giving my Mom a day off from the kitchen on a weekend. My brother-in-law loves, loves food and is quite easy to please, whatever my busy doctor kid sis dishes up is happily demolished. Sis likes to eat, but would rather not spend any time in the kitchen on a daily basis if she could help it. My older sister is a very good cook, enthusiastic about cooking, but nothing that will be a three hour process puhleez, no thanks. No, am not going to bore you with more talk about my foodie uncles, aunts, cousins and the rest of the clan...promise! I bet I heard that sigh of relief:-)

Sis and family were to come over for lunch the next noon. The biggest budding foodie in the family is my son, I wouldn't have it any other way! He took a few of my recipe books to bed to help me decide what I could dish up. By morning, he was ready with the menu written on a piece of paper and put it on the fridge door. He even decided that the names of the dishes would be written on paper and placed in front of each dish (now whatever this is called, enlighten me!).

Foodie bonding also saw me give my brother-in-law a 'demo' of the Instant Microwave Brownie for those emergency sugar craving situations. The lunch was at short notice but there was no way I could not prepare at least two desserts for my  brother-in-law's sweet tooth. The other one was a creamy and tasty Cashew And Coconut Payasam.




Here is how I made it.

Ingredients: 
 Cashew nuts -  1/2 cup
 Fresh grated coconut - 1 cup
 Milk - 3 cups plus more as needed to adjust the consistency
 Sugar - 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (adjust to taste)
 Freshly ground cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
Finely chopped, cashew nuts - 2 tablespoons.
Ghee - 1 teaspoon



Procedure: Soak the cashew nuts in enough hot water for at least 1 hour. When the nuts are soft, drain. Grind with the fresh coconut to a very smooth paste using some milk as needed to grind. Set aside. Boil the milk in a thick heavy bottomed pan. Lower the heat to minimum. Add the ground paste, mix well, ensuring no lumps. Cook on low heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The raw smell of the cashew nuts should disappear. Add the sugar, cook for a few more minutes. Turn off the heat. Roast the chopped cashew nuts in a teaspoon of ghee till golden brown.  Stir in the roasted nuts and the cardamom powder. Cool. Serve chilled.


Note : This will be sweet but not very sweet. If serving the payasam chilled, you may need to add more chilled milk to adjust the consistency. Have some powdered sugar on hand as you may need to add more sugar once you add the extra milk.

15 comments:

Priya Suresh said...

Payasam looks super rich,creamy and extremely irresistible..

Unknown said...

That looks and sounds superb dear. Wow, very unusual payasam. Bookmarking :)

Divya Kudua said...

Lovely payasam..I agree wholeheartedly with the entertaining part--we too love having people around and even more so after food blogging.New dishes=new blog posts..yeah sometimes it is extremely selfish,but who gets to eat it all??So it is actually not so selfish,isn't it?

Miriam Korula said...

Wow Suma...you sound like you have a really large close knit family...that is great....:)...i love both your dessert ideas...this one looks n' sounds really creamy...would love to give it a try...:)

notyet100 said...

this looks so delicious,,..;-)
will try this sometime

Nitha said...

rich & delicious...

Shoba Shrinivasan said...

Creamy and very tasty i am guessng as its packed with coconuts and cashews!!!

Shobha

chef and her kitchen said...

payasam looks rich n creamy...lovely..

Suman Singh said...

This payasam looks great, i bet they taste wonderful too..will have to try this sometime soon..thanks for sharing!

Lifewithspices said...

super creamy n so delicious.. pass it on pls..

hemalata said...

Wow the payasam looks so delicious and creamy.Nice preparation

Unknown said...

This is looking super....
am so impressed with you son n how organised he is.... :)))))
Obviously in the genes with a super mom like you....

Cheers,
The Variable, Crazy Over Desserts - Nachiketa
Catch me on facebook @ Crazy Over Desserts

Zareena said...

That looks very creamy and yummy. Cashews in payasam will be too healthy..:) I wanna have a glassful NOW to satisfy my craving..:)

Anonymous said...

That is one creamy decadent dessert. About your comment on my blog regarding using cream cheese, for the cake this time around, I used Kraft cream cheese. I make my own cream cheese only when I make a cream cheese cake. So since this was an entirely different process didn't want to risk using homemade cream cheese.

MiniBinoy said...

very tempting recipe