Bajra Kheer / Kambam Pal Pradhaman / Kambu Pal Payasam

This recipe gives you a pleasant cooking experience as no supervision required. hence saves your labour and let you concentrate on other things while your payasam / kheer is getting ready. End resut : absolutely delicious recipe.

Bajra - pearl millet (Kambam in Malayalam, Kambu in Tamizh)  packed with iron and various nutrients is the traditional food that is taken by natives in the form of porridge. These millets and grains are then slowly replaced by the white rice culture.

Native grains are packed with all goodness and so refreshing our menu with them makes it healthy and interesting.

In my journey of replacing rice with native grains, my sister helped me with this recipe. I gave it a very light twist and sharing it with you.

You will need :-

1. Milk - 1 Litre
2. Broken Bajra - 1.5 cups
3. Sugar - 2 tea cups or more (as per preference)
4. Green Cardamom - 2 Nos. (powdered)

Procedure :

This payasam needs no garnishing except cardamom powder. I used a pressure cooker to save the labour.

You may make any pal payasam this way except semia which is cooked separately and added at the end. rest of the,process is same.

During the process the milk turns pink due to caramelising which gives a beautiful flavour and taste to any milk based payasams. Whether it is rice, rice ada, semiya, javvarisi (sago), or any native millet

 / grains.

• In a  vessel mix broken bajra, milk. 

•  Tip to avoid Spillage :- Put a heavy bowl or heavy spoon inside the milk to avoid spillage. 

•  Place the vessel inside a pressure cooker, and pressure cook. When the whistle is about to come, lower the flame and cook for 20 minutes. This will help the milk caramalise (the milk will turn pink)

• Switch off.

• When the pressure comes down, open. Add sugar and cardamom powder and stir till sugar dissolves (say a minutes).

• As Bajra normally doesn't thicken the kheer / payasam. Hence I added 2 tbsp of cornflour dissolved in little water and cooked it on stove top for two minutes (till it thickened).

•   Tip to avoid formation of malai : Place the vessel into a kadai filled with normal water and stir it for a minute. the temperature will come down which will prevent formation of the malai (layer) on top. For immediately consumption, if you prefer to have it luke warm, then change the water in kadai and keep for another 5 minutes.

• Delicious Bjara Kheer / Kambam Pal Pradhaman / Kambu Payasam is ready!