Recipe - Pineapple Payasam

Onam - the most awaited festival in God's Own Country - is here.
Flower carpets, flower carpets everywhere. Of course, you know me by now so naturally you know that my roving eye is always headed towards the kitchen where the traditional Kerala feast - the sadya - will be 'under construction.'

If you need to refresh your memories, here is the list of the most common 29 items (yes, 29 items in one single meal) that one can find in a Sadya. Invariably, the final two in such a list will be sweet payasams. The common ones you can expect to see are:

1. Semiya payasam (vermicelli pudding)
2. Ada pradhamam (rice ada/pasta pudding) 
3. Pazha pradhamam (banana and jaggery pudding)

But as usual, we Mallus are quite malleable (Malluable? okay, okay. I know. That was terrible!).

Anyway, there are variations to this sadya too, depending on the ingredients you have, your location, your level of creativity and whatnot. With Onam being a celebration of our harvest festival, I thought now would be a good time to make use of that harvest to give Lord Mahabali something different when he visits us.
So instead of the usual trio, this time I thought we would use some lovely fresh pineapples in our payasam this time. And believe me, this is an easy recipe which yields absolutely yummy results.

So, without further adieu, I give you Pineapple Payasam.

Ingredients : 

• Pineapple - 2 cups, chopped and cooked
• Melted jaggery syrup - 2 cups
• Coconut milk - 1 cup
• Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup
• Raisins - 1/4 cup
• Ghee - 3 teaspoons
• Small banana - 2
• Rice powder - 2 teaspoons
• Cardamom - 10, to be powdered

Recipe :

• Heat a vessel and add Ghee. 
• Now add raisins and cashew nuts and fry them till the cashews are light brown and the raisins start to swell. Remove the raisins and cashews and set aside. 
• In the same vessel, add the cooked pineapple and stir till you see the water evaporate. 
• To this, add jaggery syrup and stir well. 
• Add coconut milk and rice powder and bring it to a boil while stirring. 
• Turn the heat off and add cardamom powder, cashew and raisins. 
• Cut the bananas into small round slices and use as a garnish. 

Click the image above to convert it to its full size and download the recipe

Expect to see the odd food recipe like this at Godyears too - all prepared by my mother - from recipes she has collected as far back as the 1980's - with some unique to Kerala cuisine and some variations of international dishes. 

Since the goal is to share, I will be looking to make all the recipes into easy downloadable single images as well so that you can save them on to your mobile/device and use them offline. Of course, if you do try them out, it would be awesome if you gave me (and her) feedback here on what you thought of the dish.

For the list of all the recipes so far (including seafood, egg dishes, sweets, twists on traditional dishes et al), click here:

For more food posts,  you can just check out the Category on Godyears labeled "Foodgasm" here.

Happy Onam, Everyone.

Wishing you tons of happiness and a pineapple full of payasam, wherever you are.