Paal Payasam

This paal payasam is very easy to make and tastes divine just like those you get in wedding sadhyas. As the festival of Onam is fast approaching am posting this as one of my Onam recipes.
How many of you are fans of those rose coloured paalada pradhaman
and paal payasam, well I am. For me the main attraction while attending a Hindu marriage function is the payasam, so i get dissaponted when ever they serve white coloured ones or ones with jaggery.
There is a lot of effort taken while preparing these rose coloured payasam the authentic way. They use a very big vessel called 'Varppu' or 'Urulli' to to make this. The milk is reduced in these vessels on high flame for hours. They stir it continuously through out the process.

At home we have tried once to cook it that way, but using small vessel on our stove top. It was really a hectic work but still the flavor and colour din come anywhere near the original. So we gave up trying until one fine day this recipe was presented before us. It was during an Onam season a special cookery show hosted by the actress Mallika Sukumaran, showed making this payasam in cooker. I was very happy to see the rose coloured payasam that came out of her pressure cooker.
I tried it the same day itself, but it took a few trial n errors until I finally got evrything right. The problem was eventhough the payasam got its colour it got curdled. The secret behind the perfect payasam was very simple I haved shared it in the notes. So go ahead and make this, let it be the highlight of your Onam sadhya.

Ingredients

• Milk  -  4 cups
• Sugar  -  1 cup ( 200 ml cup )
• Raw rice  -  a hand full ( cup your hands and scoop out )

Method

• Take pressure cooker and dunk in all the ingredients. Give it a quick mix.
• Keep this on medium to high flame. Wait till a strong stream of steam comes through the nozzle. Now put on the whistle and reduce the flame to very low.
• Cook for 30 to 35 minutes. Switch off the flame and keep the cooker undisturbed for 1 hr.
• After 1 hr open the cooker and serve the payasam hot or chilled.

Notes

• The secret behind the success of this payasam is that there should not be even a drop of water added to the payasam. That is you cant use the washed rice as such, dry it before use. I usually sun dry the washed rice when ever the climate is favorable and keep it ready. I also make sure that the cooker, cups, spoons etc I use are dry. One more thing is that your cookers should not have oil or food particles from previous cooking. I always wash it thoroughly, boil some water in it and discard it before cooking.
• Dont use big cooker for small quantities you wont get the rose colour, but using too small cooker may cause the milk to spill out.
• This recipe dont use cardamom or any flavour. But if u want you can add.
• You can add fried cashews and raisins before serving.
• Now I also make others payasams using this method. I have already shared Pineapple Sago Payasam using this method only with a slight difference.