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Have you ever tasted Palada Pradhaman Payasam from Vinayaka? If not, stop reading this and buy one now from Vinayaka Foods | Ready to Eat, if you can. My mother-in-law bought this regularly from Vinayaka, whether it's onam or not. I follow this recipe if I am not in Kerala and feel like savoring some. I would never dare to make this if I could buy it from Vinayaka.
This is my own recipe. I tweaked my semiya payasam for this.
INGREDIENTS - makes 4-1/2 cups
- 100 gms ada( I have used store bought dried rice ada)(roughly 3/4 cup ada)
- 1 cup water
- 5-1/2 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup + 9 Tbsp. sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Caramelize 9 Tbsp. sugar with 3 Tbsp water in a pan on medium-high heat. Turn off the stove as soon as it turns brown at any spot. It will continue to caramelize. Just tilt the pan so that the caramelizing is uniform. Be on the watch; you do not want to over-caramelize and get a bitter-tasting one. I use the same method that I do in my caramel custard recipe.
- Put the ada in a bowl and add 1 cup of water. Let soak for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
- Both the caramelizing and soaking of the ada can be done overnight.
- Put the soaked ada in a pan(not the pan with the caramelized sugar) with 4 cups of milk and salt and bring to a boil. Simmer and boil till the ada is soft.
- Into the caramelized sugar pan, add 1-1/2 cup milk. Let the caramel loosen. Give it about 30 minutes time. Add the cooked milk and ada into the pan with the caramel and cook on medium heat till it starts to boil. Stir occasionally. When the milk comes to a boil, turn off the stove. You will see the hardened toffee stick to the ladle. You don't have to cook until the caramel completely dissolves in the milk. This will take time, and it will dissolve gradually.
- After about 1 hour, taste the payasam for sweetness. If the sweetness does not come through in the first taste but develops later, add more salt to accentuate it.
- The payasam will thicken as it sits and dilute if required, using water.
NOTES
- When sugar is caramelized, it loses some sweetness and introduces a caramel flavor, which is an excellent addition to the payasam.
- Cardamom powder is typically added to flavor payasams; however, in this case, it is unnecessary, as the caramelization of the sugar adds its own flavor.
- Extra salt is required for the caramelized product.
- I got this idea for this recipe from the caramel recipe. But in most recipes, the cream is added to the caramel immediately. When I add milk to the hot caramel, it always curdles. So I wait for the caramel to cool and then add the milk. It will dilute into the caramel after about 2 hours.
- The payasam will sit at room temperature in Seattle weather without spoiling for 48 hours.
- I tried skipping the caramelizing step and cooking the payasam with all the ingredients on a medium flame to get the pink flavor, but that takes a long time—2 hrs or more—and I stopped midway.
- I used to make a pressure cooker ada payasam, but cleaning the pressure cooker later is a tough chore. I prefer the above method.
- The only difference is that the palada turns out really soft, which I like even when the payasam is refrigerated, using the pressure cooker method.
Pressure Cooker Payasam
INGREDIENTS- same recipe as semiya payasam
- 3/4 cup ada(100 gms)
- 5-1/2 cups whole milk
- 1-1/4 sugar(Costco sugar)(start 3/4 cup)
- 1/2 tsp salt
METHOD
- In a pressure pan, add all ingredients and bring to a boil.
- Once the milk boils, close the lid and place the weight. Indalium pressure cooker is ideal; if using steel, avoid high heat.
- Reduce to low heat and cook for 30 minutes.
- Turn off the stove and let it sit for another 30 minutes.
- Open and enjoy perfectly condensed payasam!
NOTES
- Avoid allowing pressure to build; the milk should only simmer and condense.
- Soaked the ada in 1 cup of water overnight, but this step is unnecessary, as it made the ada too soft and undesirable.
- Dry roasting the ada before cooking resulted in a taste that was not preferred.
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