Nei Payasam, a traditional sweet of South India made from rice, jaggery and ghee. It's one of the common sweets served in many temples across South India. Nei Payasam is actually sakkarai pongal without dal and the term "Nei payasam" is quite commonly used in Kerala cuisine more than Tamil cuisine.

In our home, we always make sakkarai pongal without dal and still we used to call it  "Sakkarai pongal" . So I guess the names are easily interchangeable in South Tamilnadu.   

When i was new to the blogging world, really wondered about all the sakkarai pongal recipe available online because each recipe would call for dal, so that time when i asked Amma why we didn't use dal in sakkarai pongal in our family, her answer was "adding dal would make them spoil easily". 

Guess, may be in those days, sakkarai pongal was made only for pongal & other temple festivals in large quantities. So in order to keep it good for a longer time, dal would be omitted and in later days dal was added in the sakkarai pongal recipe in some parts of Tamilnadu. 

Still remember that the leftover sakkarai pongal made on pongal festival was consumed by the elders in the family on the next day and used to say that the taste gets better on the next day. But in those days, I would run away from the leftover foods and haven't had the experience of tasting it. 

Through blogging and food as a medium I have learnt a lot about other cultures. Most of the food that i grew up eating is easily tagged under "Kerala Cuisine" now and even i can see how much our family cooking is so similar to kerala cuisine more than tamilnadu cuisine based on the common overview of cuisine. 

But people have their way of cooking even before the state separation, right? So all the categories we have are not comprehensive, it's just to give the idea of what most people in that region eat, that's all.

Coming back to the recipe, kerala raw rice/  unakalari rice is commonly used for Nei Payasam. I have had a small amount of leftover kerala raw rice from the pongal purchase and used that for this recipe. Back home also, Amma uses the same rice for making both savory and sweet pongal on Pongal festival.

It gives nice texture and flavor to the payasam. And for that vibrant color of payasam, I have used an equal amount of dark and light colored jaggery. Now let's check out how to make this lip smacking Nei payasam.

Nei Payasam | Aravana Payasam

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 25 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Nei Payasam, Sweet, Tamilnadu,Traditional,Kerala Cuisine,Tamilnadu Cuisine,Aravana Payasam Nei Payasam, a traditional sweet of South India made from rice, jaggery and ghee. It's one of the common sweets served in many temples across South Tamilnadu.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Unakalari Rice / Kerala Raw Rice - 1/2 cup
Water - 3/4 cup + 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup(heaped)
Cardamon powder - 1/2 tsp
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Coconut bits - 1 tbsp
Cashew - 1 tsp

Procedure

In a pressure cooker , add the washed rice and add 3/4 cup of water and cook it for 3 whistle.

The cooked rice should be soft and not mushy. In a kadai add the jaggery & water and bring into boil.

Once the jaggery melts completely, strain it and add again into the kadai along with cooked rice . Mix it all well.

Cook till it became thick and then add the cardamom powder and half of the ghee.

In an another pan, heat the remaining ghee & add the coconut bits and cashews.

Roast till they are golden brown and add into the payasam. Mix it well.

Delicious Nei Payasam is ready.

Related: How to make Javvarisi Semiya Payasam 

Notes:

• Instead of kerala raw rice, you can use the regular raw rice too
• I have used equal amount of dark and light colored jaggery.
• Adding coconut bits truly enhance the taste, so highly recommend to add it.
• Instead of coconut bits, you can use grated coconut also.
  

Continue Reading »

Rice flour/ Pacharisi Maavu is one of the most needed ingredients for the deepavali snacks like murukku,seedai, thattai and so on. 

As deepavali is just around the corner, making rice flour ahead at home comes handy when you want to make any last minute snacks.You may wonder why i have to make the rice flour when it's easily available at the grocery store. 

Yes, I too had the same question until I tried on my own and made snacks with it. The flavor and taste of the snacks made with home made flour are way better than the snacks made with store bought flours. 

Also for some sweets like adhirasam, we need the freshly made flour and back in India, we ground it from a nearby flour mill, but here in US/Canada, i can't find one, so i have made them in small batches whenever needed. 

What type of rice is required to make rice flour?

Raw Rice (pacharisi in tamil) works great for making all types of sweets and snacks. So if you're making the rice flour for diwali sweets, use raw rice. I personally like ponni pacharisi to make flour.

Can I use this rice flour for Adhirasam?

Yes, of Course !! For adhirasam there is no need to roast the flour.

How long can I store this flour ?

It stays well for up to 6 months at room temperature. 

What kind of mixer works best for making home made powder ?

I have been using my Indian mixie for all types of home made powder. It works well for my needs.

Why the flour has so many small lumps after roasting the flour?

It's quite common. To remove all the lumps, you can pulse the flour in mixie once when it's completely cooled.

Now let's see how to make the rice home at home.
For urad dal flour, check out here

Home made Rice Flour | Pacharisi maavu

Preparation Time : 2 hrs | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Makes : 2 & 1/2 cup 
Recipe Category: Rice Flour | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Pacharisi Maavu, Home made Rice Flour, How to make rice flour, Diwali Preperation Making rice flour at home gives great flavor and taste to all the sweets and snacks made with it.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Raw Rice - 2 cup

Procedure

Wash the rice in running water twice and soak it for 1 & 1/2 to 2 hrs.

Drain the water from rice and spread it on neat kitchen towel for 20 mins.After 20 mins, the rich should be damp, not completely  dry, at this stage, transfer the rice into mixie jar.

Grind into fine powder, then transfer the rice flour into sieve  and sieve it with fine mesh till no flour pass through the sieve.

After sieving, put the leftover rice granules into mixie jar and grind into smooth powder and add it into the already sieved flour.If you notice any large granule after the 2nd grinding, put it in sieve and sieve, but mine is smooth ,so i don't do that 2nd time.

Heat the kadai in medium flame and add the sieved flour, roast in medium flame continuously for 12 -15 mins, all the moisture from the flour evaporates and the flour is like dry sand. At this stage, you can able to draw a line with the flour. That's the correct stage, remove from the flame and let it cool completely.

That's it!! Home made flour is ready.

Related : Home made Urad Dal Flour

Notes:

• If you're making rice flour for adhirasam, then no need to roast the flour.
• Roast the flour without changing its color.
• After roasting, you may find small lumps, that's totally normally, you can pulse the flour in mixie once to remove all the lumps  when it's completely cooled.
  

Continue Reading »

Neer Dosa | Rice Dosa Recipe | Breakfast Recipe

Neer dosa, a soft, thin and lacey dosa made with raw rice batter. This dosa can be prepared instantly once the batter is ready, no need to ferment the batter. I have been eyeing on this dosa for a while, at last, i had prepared this dosa last week for our breakfast along with bell pepper chutney. It tastes so good and i really love the coconut flavor in the dosa. 
For the first one or two dosas, i found it very difficult to spread the dosa, but once i get the knack of pouring the batter evenly, then the making of  this dosa was like icing on the cake.Just like rava dosa, the batter should be pour thinly over the dosa pan, that way it cooks well even without flipping it. If you're planning to make this dosa for breakfast, then soak the rice on previous night itself. Since i prepared this dosa for breakfast, i had soaked the rice for overnight and used that for today's recipe, but i guess 3 to 4 hours of soaking time is enough.

Neer Dosa

Preparation Time : 10 mins(exclude soaking time) | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 to 3 
Recipe Category: Dosa | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Raw Rice - 1 cup
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Oil - for greasing

Procedure

Soak the rice in water for minimum 4 hrs. Grate the coconut & keep it ready. Drain the water from the rice and add into the mixie jar.Add coconut into the mixie jar along with enough water and grind into smooth paste.Pour the rice batter into the bowl & add salt , mix it well , if needed add more water and make it as thin batter.Heat the dosa pan and grease the pan with oil and pour the batter thinly over the dosa pan. Cover cook the dosa for few mins and then remove from the pan. That's it, soft and tasty Neer dosa is ready.Serve it with you favorite chutney or/and sambar. We had it with bell pepper chutney.

Notes:

• Pour the batter thinly over the dosa pan to get soft dosas.
• The batter should be slightly thicker than buttermilk. 
• This dosa tastes best when it's hot. 
  

 Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#85

Continue Reading »

Adhirasam | அதிரசம் | Diwali Sweets

Adhirasam, a traditional South Indian sweet made from rice flour and jaggery. It's one of the common sweets prepared during Deepavali/Diwali festival. 

In Childhood days , I was not fond of adhirasam much. At that time I was very fascinated about the milk sweets like pal khova.  But you know , as you age, your taste changes and now adhirasam is my most favorite sweet. When I started to make adhirasam on my own, I truly appreciated its simplicity compared to other sweets which need a ton of ghee. 

To me , my periamma(mom's sister) makes the best adhirasam, so I ask my mom to get a recipe for me. Once I got the recipe and tips, I tried it.To my surprise, I got it right at the first time itself(beginner's luck,it seems :-) ).

If you look at the step by step instructions. it may look like a lengthy process, but it doesn't! I just want to capture minute details, so it may be helpful to those who try it for the first time.

If you're making this for the first time, see the notes section and carefully follow the instructions, you too get it right at the first time itself. Now let's see how to make this delicious Adhirasam ! 

Athirasam

Preparation Time : 12 hrs(resting dough) | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Makes : 15 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Adhirasam,Athirasam,kajjaya,ariselu Adhirasam, a traditional South Indian sweet made from rice flour and jaggery. It's one of the common sweets prepared during Deepavali/Diwali festival.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Raw Rice - 1 Cup

Jaggery - 3/4 Cup

Cardamom - 4

Black sesame seed - 1 tbsp

Water - 1/4 cup

Oil for frying

Procedure

Wash the rice in water twice and soak it in water for about 2 hrs.

After 2 hrs drain the water and spread the rice on clean kitchen towel and dry it for 1 hr.

When the rice is slightly wet,grind the rice in the mixer into fine powder.If you are doing it in larger batch, you can grind it in flour mill(in tamil  we say "idikurathu"). And sieve the flour to remove large rice granules.

Again grind the leftover rice granules into fine powder and add it along with already sieved rice flour.

Now dry roast the sesame seed  and put it in the flour. Add the water in the sauce pan for making jaggery syrup and bring to boil.

Grate the jaggery and add it in boiling water,let it comes to boil.

Once jaggery melted, remove the strain through strainer and keep it in flame again. Now add the cardamom powder and let it boil still  the jaggery syrup reaches one string consistency (wet your thumb and index finger and take the jaggery syrup between your fingers, it will form string). switch of the flame. In the mean time, mix the flour with sesame seed and keep it ready.

Add this jaggery syrup little by little into flour and mix it with spatula .Be careful here , the syrup is very hot. 

Once mix it with all the syrup, the batter should be thick ( neither too stiff nor too runny). Once it comes to room temperature, cover it with lid and keep aside for overnight.

On next day, heat the oil in fry pan, Now athirasam dough becomes thick and you can make balls from the batter.

Make small ball from mixture and spread it like vada(grease your hand with water) in greased polythene bag/ banana leaf,make hole in the center 

Add one by one and fry until it becomes crispy on outside.Once it became crispy,remove it and put it on tissue paper.

Once it completely cooled ,store it in air tight container and enjoy it .It remains good for even one week at room temperature. Look at those, they are delicious.

Notes:

• The oil should not be over heated on entire process, keep the flame in low to get crispy outside.
• Making hole is the center is purely optional, it will gives crispy outside,we prefer that, so do the same.
• The Jaggery syrup consistency is very important.
• If you add the syrup into flour before it reaches single thread consistency, then the batter wont be thick on next day and also it absorbs more oil.
• If you miss one string consistency, then the dough will be very hard,so keep the flame in low, when the syrup reaches one string consistency.
• You can fry adhirasam immediately when you prepare the dough, but standing time gives soft adhirasam
• You can keep the dough in refrigerator for weeks, whenever needed, fry and have hot & crispy adhirasam.
• The rice flour should be slightly wet when you mix jaggery syrup with it, if you prepared rice flour few hours before, cover it with damn cloth to retain the moisture in the flour.
• Keep the flame in low so that the inside also cooks well, otherwise the outer layer becomes dark very quickly and the inside dough is raw.

Continue Reading »