Thengai-arisi payasam - Coconut and rice porridge

The Friday succeeding the Varalakshmi pooja, we use the coconut and the rice which was used in the kalasam to prepare a sweet dish. I will not be able to use up the entire coconut in one go, unless I make coconut burfis and yet another sweet dish with the rice. This is an impossible feat, considering we are just two members in the family.

I end up cooking a small portion of both in one dish and use the rest in other dishes. This time however, I made coconut burfis and this payasam. The rest of the rice, I used up making sevai.

This payasam is quite easy and delectable. It is usually cooked to a thin and drinkable consistency. It was one of the side dishes for plain rice sevai during my childhood years.On days when my grandparents and mother restricted to themselves to eating salt-free dishes, like Kruthigai vratham or Thiruvonam they make this for a light refreshing kanji. The coconut and rice cooked with jaggery and a dash of cardamom and nutmeg added for flavour make this extremely delicious.

Ingredients: ( Serves two)

3 tablespoons freshly grated coconut

2 tablespoons raw rice

1/4 cup powdered jaggery

1 green cardamom crushed until the pods are coarsely powdered

1 pinch of nutmeg powder

This is how you make the payasam:

Soak the raw rice in some water for about half an hour. Add the coconut to the rice and grind to a very fine paste.

Take this paste in a heavy bottomed pan. Add about 300ml water to it. Cook this mixture over moderate heat stirring often to avoid lumps of cooked rice forming therein.

The rice-coconut mixture will cook and the colour will get slightly tarnished as the mixture thickens. You may add more water if required, though it will not be necessary.

Keep this on a low flame and allow to simmer.

Meanwhile, dissolve jaggery in water and strain the scum. Put the pan on the stove and bring the dissolved jaggery water to boil. Allow to boil until raw taste subsides and the jaggery syrup is slightly thick.

Transfer the jaggery syrup to the cooking coconut-rice mix. Stir and blend them completely.

Allow this to come to boil once and take off the heat.

Garnish with crushed cardamom and nutmeg powder.

Serve warm or cold, it will taste just the same...DELICIOUS!!!